Part 17

The Bassani produced examples of small pictures of quadrupeds and birds, which consisting of copies taken from those seen in their histories, are easily recognized. They are not so numerous, however, as their history pieces; nor do I recollect having seen specimens of them except in the Venetian state. In drawing fish, an artist of the name of Genzio or Gennesio Liberale, a native of Friuli, has been mentioned with praise by Vasari, and afterwards by Ridolfi.

A taste for grotesque, was introduced into Venice from Rome, by a citizen of the republic, recorded by me elsewhere as the master of this kind of art. His name was Morto da Feltro, who, in the company of Giorgione, employed himself in Venice, though without leaving any traces of his hand. There are specimens of grotesque, in the Ducal Palace, painted by Batista Franco, who had likewise beheld ancient examples of them at Rome. There were others painted for the Patriarch of Aquileja, his patron, by Giovanni di Udine, mentioned by Vasari under the names of Manni and Ricamatore; an artist very celebrated in his line, and almost unique in drawing every kind of birds, quadrupeds, fruits, and flowers. I have included him in the school of Giorgione; and he is stated more at length in that of Raffaello; for he remained but little while with his first master, and in Upper Italy; but longer in Rome, and during some time in Florence. His pictures of birds, or fruits, executed in oil, are pointed out in different collections, though, if I mistake not, they are not all genuine. It is not, indeed, that he produced no specimens in oil, although it is extremely difficult to discover any that are certain; nor that he was incapable of drawing larger figures than such as we see in his satyrs, in his boys, and nymphs, with which he diversified the little landscapes and the tracery of his grotesques. Vasari mentions some of his standards, one of which, executed in Udine, for the Fraternity of Castello, presents in rather large proportions, a blessed virgin with the divine child, and an angel making her an offering of the same castle. The original, though much defaced, still exists, and there is also a copy in the chapel, executed by Pini in 1653. There likewise remains in the archiepiscopal palace, a chamber containing, among some grotesques, two scriptural histories, drawn in half-length figures, not so perfect as the ornamental part, but valuable from their rarity. His other productions, both in Udine and the state, have been enumerated in a learned letter written by the Ab. Boni, upon the standard or gonfalone, just described. If we might hazard a conjecture relative to the school of Giovanni and of Feltro, we should be inclined to give for a pupil to one of these, Giorgio Bellunese, an artist, as we are informed by Cesarini, "_very excellent in friezes and in minute ornaments_," and moreover an able portrait painter. He flourished at San Vito, a place in the Friuli, about the middle of the sixteenth century; so that the time, the place, and his employment in ornamental work, seem equally to favour our opinion.

The art of architectural design received great assistance in Venice during this period, from the works of Sansovino, Palladio, and other consummate architects, who gave finished examples of magnificent edifices; while Daniel Barbaro composed very useful treatises upon perspective; and it became an attribute of the art to feign colonnades, galleries, and rich cornices, for those halls in which real architecture would not admit of them. In this, Cristoforo and Stefano Rosa more particularly distinguished themselves. They were from Brescia, very intimate with Titian, and merited the honour of being employed by him, in his architectural ornaments for several of his pieces. In Brescia, in Venice, and particularly in the anti-chamber to the library of S. Mark, we may meet with some of their perspectives, so admirably executed as to surprise us by their air of majesty, cheating the eye by their relief; and when beheld in different points of view, always producing a good effect. Their school continued to flourish during many years, in their native state; and was subsequently supported by Bona, excellent also in figures, as well as by other artists. Boschini bestows many commendations upon it in different parts of his work in verse; and in particular at p. 225, where he declares, that Brescia was the source of this art; which applies of course to the Venetian state.

Finally, the art of mosaic work, in stone and coloured glass, at that time, attained such a degree of perfection in Venice, that Vasari observed with surprise, "that it would not be possible to effect more with colours."[76] The church and portico of S. Mark remains an invaluable museum of the kind; where, commencing with the eleventh century, we may trace the gradual progress of design belonging to each age up to the present, as exhibited in many works in mosaic, beginning from the Greeks, and continued by the Italians. They chiefly consist of histories from the Old and New Testament, and at the same time furnish very interesting notices relating to civic and ecclesiastical antiquity. A portion of the most ancient specimens had long either perished, or fallen into decay, and it had been resolved to substitute fresh ones in their place. It is not improbable, that after the year 1400, upon the revival of painting, a desire prevailed to banish the taste of the Greeks; and certain it is, that in the mosaics of that age we meet with the modern antique style, the same as in regard to pictures. It will be enough to cite the chapel of the _Mascoli_, decorated by Michele Zambono with histories of the life of the virgin, executed with extraordinary care, and designed in the best taste of the Vivarini.

The same taste prevailed in the time of Titian; and to this he gave a renewed spirit, and even furnished several of these artists with designs. Marco Luciano Rizzo and Vincenzo Bianchini are the first, who, about 1517, succeeded in a complete reform of the art. To the last is referred that celebrated Judgment of Solomon, which adorns the portico, or vestibule. Both these, however, were surpassed by Francesco and Valerio Zuccati of Treviso, or rather of the Valtelline, sons of the same Sebastian who initiated Titian in the first rudiments of the art. Of these, likewise, there appears in the portico a San Marco, among various prophets and doctors, and with two histories that may be pronounced the best mosaic works, produced during the age of painting. I have seen altarpieces for churches, and pictures for private ornament, in the same taste. The Royal Gallery at Florence possesses a portrait from life of Cardinal Bembo, worked by Valerio; and a San Girolamo, by Francesco, is known to have been presented by the republic to the court of Savoy. Subsequent to these, whom Vasari erroneously calls sometimes Zuccheri, sometimes Zuccherini, Arminio, a son of Valerio, was in much repute. Nor did this family only possess the art of colouring stone and glass with admirable skill; but they understood the principles of design, more particularly Francesco, who had been a painter before entering upon mosaic works. The family of Bianchini, and the other artists then employed at S. Mark, were not equally well instructed; and, stimulated by feelings of envy, they declared open enmity against the Zuccati, for having assisted with the brush to supply some parts of the design to be executed in mosaic; nor did they fail to cry down the ability of Valerio, to whom it would appear that Titian and his son afforded succour. It would be tedious here to relate the various persecutions, litigations, and losses, owing to this quarrel; the particulars of which were extracted by Zanetti from authentic documents, and minutely described. Enough, that he concludes with extolling the Zuccati, together with Vincenzio Bianchini; to whom, as being acquainted with design, it was sufficient to furnish a rough draught for the intended work. Others were, for the most part, in want of cartoons, and complete paintings, in order to model their mosaic works, and even then they conducted them with skill much inferior to their predecessors. In this list he computes Domenico, the brother, and Gio. Antonio, the son of Vincenzio Bianchini, as well as Bartolommeo Bozza, at one time a pupil, and then an accuser along with the rest, of the Zuccati. In the time of these were first adopted, and practically applied, the works and designs of Salviati and of Tintoretto. The names succeeding these, were Gio. Antonio Marini, a pupil of Bozza, and Lorenzo Ceccato, both admirable artificers; Luigi Gaetano and Jacopo Pasterini, with Francesco Turestio, notices of whom are brought up to the year 1618. They worked after the cartoons of the two Tintoretti, of Palma the younger, of Maffeo Verona, of Leandro Bassano, of Aliense, of Padovanino, of Tizianello, besides several others. About the year 1600 commenced a series of artists less generally known; a list of whose works may be consulted at the close of that very valuable publication, "_Della Pittura Veneziana_." These last, however, have confined their labours to the decoration of new walls, from modern designs; as since 1610, a decree has been in force against the destruction of ancient mosaic works, in however rude or Greekish a taste; but in case of impending destruction, they were to be removed and restored with care, and afterwards refixed in the same place. By this measure a series of monuments is preserved to posterity, which, in its kind, is quite unique in Italy, and the world.

[Footnote 41: It is related by Vasari, that Titian was in the habit of painting natural objects from the life, without making any previous design, "a practice adopted for many years by the Venetian painters, by Giorgione, by Palma, by Pordenone, and others who never visited Rome, nor studied other specimens of greater perfection than their own." I know not how far the above writer was acquainted with their method. But their designs are still extant in various collections; and the Cartoon of the celebrated S. Agostino, painted by Pordenone in that city, is now in possession of the Count Chiappini in Piacenza, in good condition.]

[Footnote 42: I made mention elsewhere of P. Federici's supposition, as being at least probable, that F. Sebastiano was the same person as F. Marco Pensaben, a Dominican. The year of their birth is certainly the same. But other dates are too discordant; if, indeed, we are not to suppose that the whole of what Vasari has written of Sebastiano, in his life of him, as well as in those of Sanzio and Peruzzi, is merely fanciful. It is by no means worth our while to draw minute comparisons between the epochs of these two painters. In 1520, we found Pensaben in Venice; next at Trevigi, where he remained till July, 1521. Now Sebastiano, the Venetian, was, at this very period, at Rome. The Car. Giulio de'Medici had committed to Raffaello the picture of the _Transfiguration_, which having hardly completed, that artist died on Good Friday, 1520; and during the same time, as if in competition with Raffaello, Sebastiano was employed in painting the Resurrection of Lazarus, for the same Cardinal, which, soon after, was exhibited along with the Transfiguration, and then sent into France. More still--he likewise drew the Martyrdom of Santa Agata, for the Cardinal of Aragona; a piece which, in the time of Vasari, was in possession of the Duke of Urbino; then in the Palazzo Pitti at Florence, whence it passed into France. There is the name of _Sebastianus Venetus_, and the year 1520 affixed to it. This artist therefore can, by no means, be confounded with F. Marco, nor the painting of this last at Trevigi be ascribed to the former. Such a mistaken opinion has been attributed to me by the learned P. Federici; (vol. i. p. 120) but on what ground I know not.]

[Footnote 43: We confess our obligations to Sig. Giuseppe Beltramelli, who informs us, in a work published in 1806, that this painter, generally supposed from Bergamo, was really a Venetian, being thus mentioned in a public contract: _M. Laurentius Lottus de Venetiis nunc habitator Bergomi_. Father Federici, who, on the strength of some historian, pronounces him of Trevigi, brings forward another document in which Lotto is called: _D. Laurentii Lotti pictoris, et de presenti Tarvisii commorantis_. If, therefore, _habitator Bergomi_ does not prove him a native of Bergamo, will the words _Tarvisii commorantis_ make him a native of Trevigi? But Father Affo, in one of his earliest pictures, found him entitled _Tarvisinus_. Who, however, can assure us that it is in fact the handwriting of Lotto, which he there found written?]

[Footnote 44: Thus called by the oldest writers, though, from his father's testament, recently brought to light, it appears to be erroneous. Here his father is entitled, _Angelus de Lodesanis de Corticellis_, (or in a MS. of the Signori Mottensi of Pordenone _de Corticelsis Brixiensis_).]

[Footnote 45: It is inserted in a _Transunto_ of MSS. belonging to the noble Ernesto Mottensi of Pordenone, communicated to me by the P. D. Michele Turriani Barnabita, extremely skilled in the parchments and ancient memorials of Friuli.]

[Footnote 46: See his work on Venetian Painting, p. 250.]

[Footnote 47: By means of Sig. Ab. Gei, of Cadore, a young man of the most promising abilities, I have obtained notice of an artist belonging to that place, who, from various authorities, is supposed to have been the instructor of the great Titian. It is certain he flourished towards the close of the fifteenth century; nor does there exist accounts of any other artist of Cadore, capable of initiating his countrymen in a knowledge of the art. Three of his pictures in water colours, in the usual style of composition at that time, so frequently described, are yet extant; the first, a fine altarpiece, adorning the parish church at Selva, in which the titular S. Lorenzo, with others, in an upright posture, are seen surrounding the throne of the Virgin; a second, of smaller size, is in the Oratory of Sig. Antonio Zamberlani, in the parish church of Cadore, where the throne appears encompassed with cherubs playing upon instruments; the third, placed at San Bartolommeo of Nabiu, is divided into six compartments; the best, or at least the most free from harshness of manner of the whole. It is inferior, however, in design to Jacopo Bellini, though equal, perhaps, in point of diligence and colouring, and similar in its style. Upon the first he has inscribed, _Antonius RUBEUS de Cadubrio pinxit_; upon the second, _Opus Antonii_ RUBEI: but the letter E being defaced, the word looks like RUBLI; upon the third is found _Antonius Zaudanus_ (da Zoldo) _pinxit_. Thus if we combine these inscriptions it will appear that this ancient painter, whom we now place at the head of the artists belonging to that prolific clime, was Antonio Rossi Cadorino.]

[Footnote 48: See Ridolfi. This picture is now in Dresden, and Italy abounds with copies. One of these I saw at S. Saverio di Rimini, inscribed with the name of Titian on the band of the Pharisee, a very beautiful production, and believed by many to be a duplicate rather than a copy. Albert was in Italy in 1495 and in 1506. In Venice, one of his pictures, in the council of the Ten, is cited by Zanetti; it is Jesus Christ shewn to the people; and an altarpiece is also mentioned by Sansovino, placed at S. Bartolommeo, commended both by him and by other writers. (See the Sig. Morelli's Annotations on the _Notizia_, p. 223.)]

[Footnote 49: Opere, tome i. p. 177.]

[Footnote 50: See his Life of Titian.]

[Footnote 51: See Bottari, Notes to Vasari, in the Life of Titian.]

[Footnote 52: See _Idea della Pittura, Edizione Rom._ p. 287.]

[Footnote 53: See Passeri.]

[Footnote 54: On the Arts of Design, Discourse, &c.]

[Footnote 55: He drew his head of San Niccolo a' Frari from a cast of the Laocoon; and from other models of the antique, that of S. John the Baptist, and of the Magdalen of Spain. From a Greek basso relievo he likewise copied the angels of his S. Peter Martyr. The same artist drew the Cesars, at Mantua, a work very highly commended, and impossible to have been so well executed without a knowledge of ancient sculpture, of which there yet exists a fine collection at Mantua. But what he drew from the antique, he also inspired with nature, the sole method of profiting by it, when a painter aspires to a higher character than that of a mere statuary. See Ridolfi, p. 171.]

[Footnote 56: Lamberto Lombardo, of Liege, is the artist whose life was written in Latin, by his disciple Golzio, a work edited in Bruges in 1565. In his youth he adopted the surname of Suterman, or Susterman, in the Latin tongue _Suavis_, and having likewise been an excellent engraver, his signature was sometimes L. L., at others, L. S. The whole of this account is to be met with in Orlandi, and other books. Yet Orlandi and the new Guide of Padua, acknowledge another Lamberti, also surnamed Suster, upon the authority of Sandrart, who mentions him, p. 224. According to Orlandi, this artist was the assistant to Titian and Tintoret, by whom he is first recorded as Lamberto Suster, and again as Lamberto Tedesco. The same author mentions a Federigo di Lamberto, whose name occurs in our first volume, (p. 268), likewise called del Padovano and _Sustris_, certainly from _Suster_, for which see Vasari and his annotators. These Lamberti, founded upon the diversity between the Liege and German names of Susterman and Suster, received upon the authority of Sandrart, not always very critical, are, I have reason to think, one and the same artist. For in Venice one Lamberto only is alluded to by Ridolfi, Boschini, and Zanetti, without a surname, but by the last held to be the same as Lombardo; and what signifies it, whether he was called Suster or Susterman, of Germany, or of Liege, in Italy.]

[Footnote 57: He is called by Vasari, Zanetti, and Guarienti, Bazzacco and Brazzacco da Castelfranco, and Guarienti makes him a scholar of Badile.]

[Footnote 58: They consist only of a few pages relating to the painters of Castelfranco. I cannot explain why Padre Federici (Pref. p. 17) supposes that I should have announced this as the MS. Melchiori, although Sig. Trevisani may have drawn various notices from that quarter.]

[Footnote 59: Padre Coronelli, in his Travels in England, (part i. p. 66), ascribes this picture to Paul Veronese, a mistake that is cleared up by the tenor of the contract, preserved in the archives of San Liberale. He adds that the picture contained a number of naked figures, to which draperies were afterwards adapted by another hand--an assertion wholly groundless.]

[Footnote 60: In a MS. by a contemporary author cited in the new Guide of Padua, he is called Domenico Veneziano, educated by Julio Campagnola.]

[Footnote 61: Thus stated in the _Lettere Pittoriche_, vol. i. p. 248. Recent writers of Friuli make him a native of Udine, a modern supposition, inasmuch as Grassi, a very diligent correspondent of Vasari, would hardly have been silent upon such a name. It took its rise, most likely, from the existence of a noble family of the same surname, in Udine, and from three of the artist's pictures having been discovered in the same place, one with the date 1595. Yet none are to be seen at Casa Frangipane, a circumstance very unusual in regard to excellent artists. We must look, therefore, for other proofs before we can pronounce him a native of Udine, and before we can assent to the conjecture of Rinaldis, who would admit two artists of the name of Niccolo Frangipane, the one a painter by profession, and the other a dilettante; and yet contemporaries, as appears from the authority of the dates of the pictures, already referred to.]

[Footnote 62: This fact cannot easily be refuted, in the manner attempted by Zaist, in his "Historical Notices of the Cremonese Painters," with true party zeal, p. 162. (See the New Guide of Milan, p. 139.)]

[Footnote 63: To these the name of _Francesco da Milano_ has recently been added, on the strength of an altarpiece, quite _Titianesque_, exhibited with his name in the parish church of Soligo, to which is added the date of 1540:--time may probably clear up the mystery of this.]

[Footnote 64: He flourished several years subsequent, as appears from the _New Milan Guide_, with MS. corrections, by Signor Bianconi, of which the Cavalier Lazara has a copy. He there remarks that he had seen in the greater monastery, now suppressed, belonging to the nuns of San Maurizio, other paintings by Piazza; as Washing the Disciples' feet, in the Refectory, and the Multiplication of Loaves, upon canvass. Also within the interior church, among other scriptural stories in fresco, is found, the Adoration of the Magi, the Marriage of Cana, and the Baptism of Christ, bearing the date of 1556.]

[Footnote 65: Zanetti, p. 147. See also Ridolfi, 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.)]