Part 6

About this period there flourished two distinguished artists in Brescia, who were present at the terrific saccage of that opulent city, in the year 1512, by Gaston de Foix. One of these is Fioravante Ferramola, who was honoured and remunerated upon that occasion by the French victor for his striking merit, and became sufficiently conspicuous in various churches of the country. His painting of S. Girolamo is seen at Le Grazie, extremely well conceived, with fine landscape, and in a taste so like that of Muziano, that we might almost suppose it prognosticated his appearance. And it might be said that he afforded the latter a prototype, if he does not aspire to the name of his master. The other is Paolo Zoppo, who depicted the above desolation of the city in miniature, upon a large crystal bason; a work of immense labour, intended to be presented to the doge Gritti: but in transporting it to Venice, the crystal was unfortunately broken, and the unhappy artist died of disappointment and despair. The specimens of his style remaining at Brescia, among which is one of Christ going up to Mount Calvary, at S. Pietro in Oliveto--a piece falsely attributed by others to Foppa--serve to shew that he approached near to the modern manner, and was not unacquainted with the Bellini.

Finally, Bergamo boasted in Andrea Previtali one of the most excellent disciples of Gian Bellini. He appears, indeed, less animated than his master, and less correct in the extremities of his figures; neither have I discovered any of his compositions which are free from the ancient taste, whether in the grouping of his forms, or in the minute ornamenting of the accessaries of his art. Nevertheless, in a few pictures produced, perhaps, later in life, such as his S. Giovanni Batista, at S. Spirito; his S. Benedetto, in the dome of Bergamo, and several more in the Carrara Gallery, he very nearly attained to the modern manner; and was indisputably one of the most distinguished artists, in point of colours and perspective, belonging to the school of the Bellini. His Madonnas are held in the highest esteem; in whose features he appears less a disciple of Gian Bellini, than of Raffaello, and of Vinci. Two of them at Milan I have seen, both bearing his name: one is in possession of the Cavalier Melzi; the other in that of Monsig. Arciprete Rosales, painted in 1522; and both are surrounded with figures of other saints, portraits executed with discrimination and truth. There is also a picture of Our Lord announced by the Angel, at Ceneda, a work so uncommonly beautiful in regard to the two heads, that Titian, in passing occasionally through the place, is said, according to Ridolfi, to have repeatedly contemplated it with rapture; charmed by the spirit of devotion it expressed. Upon the same boundaries, between the ancient and modern taste, we find various other painters, natives of the valleys of Bergamo, a fruitful source both of wealth and intellect to the city. Such is Antonio Boselli,[38] from the Valle Brembana, of whom there has recently been discovered a fine altarpiece at the Santo of Padua; besides two other artists of the same vale, who approach even nearer to the softness, if not to the elegance of Previtali. These are Gian Giacomo, and Agostino Gavasii di Pascante. We may add to these Jacopo degli Scipioni, of Averara, and Caversegno, of Bergamo, besides others handed down to us by Tassi. These, having flourished at a period so distinguished for the art of colouring, may be compared to certain writers of the fourteenth century, who throw little light upon learning; but who, observes Salvini, in respect to language, appear to me as if every separate page were embued with gold.

I have already pointed out to the reader, the best masters of the Venetian School, contemporary with, and followers of Gian Bellini; a number which, though we subtract from it several names of inferior note, will leave a larger proportion than is generally supposed. The state, indeed, is full of specimens founded upon his models, the authors of which remain doubtful; yet it is certain they composed in Bellini's style, while their designs partake more or less both of the modern and ancient taste.[39] Undoubtedly, no other school affords a proof of so great a number of disciples from one master, and following so closely in his footsteps. Granting this, I cannot easily give credit to the numerous specimens of Madonnas attributed to his single hand, besides other pictures in different collections. A cautious judge will not be apt to pronounce any work his, which displays much of ideal beauty; Bellini having, for the most part, repeated in his feminine figures an expression of countenance, partaking in some degree of an apish character. Nor will he be easily led to ascribe to him pictures which display a minute care and finish, approaching to the miniature style, inasmuch as he embodied and coloured his conceptions with a free and fearless hand. In short, a certain vigour of colour, warm and lively; a certain reddish tinge of the drapery, approaching a rosy hue; a certain brightness of varnish, are not the usual characteristics of his hand, however much his style of design may be mixed up with them; and such pieces may reasonably be presumed the production of those artists of the state bordering nearest upon Lombardy, whence, likewise, a few of the Venetian state derived the mechanical part of their colouring.

Within the limits proposed to myself, I may here annex to my consideration of the painters in water colours and in oil, other less distinguished branches of the art. Among these is that species of inlaid work with wood of different colours, which was intended more particularly for the ornament of choirs where the divine service was chaunted. I can trace nothing of its inventors, whether of German or other origin;[40] though it is said to have taken its rise in an imitation of mosaic work, and of works in stone. No other coloured woods besides black and white were at first in use; nor any other objects beyond large edifices, temples, colonnades, and in short ornaments with architectural views, attempted to be represented. Brunelleschi at Florence gave instructions in perspective to architects, that edifices might be drawn according to good rules; and Massaccio in painting, greatly availed himself of his precepts, as well as Benedetto da Majano in his inlaid works. There remain at Florence, as well as other places in Italy, several ancient choirs very highly prized in that age, but afterwards despised, when the art of staining wood with boiled water colours and penetrative oils, came into use. Thus, after the imitation of buildings, easily drawn from the number of their right lines, that of figures began to be practised in an able manner, though it had formerly been tried with less success. The chief merit of such improvement, or rather perfection of the art, was due to the Venetian School. Lorenzo Canozio, from Lendinara, a fellow student of Mantegna, who died about 1477, inlaid the entire choir of the church of S. Antonio, even, as it would appear, with figures. The whole, however, having been consumed by fire, there is nothing remaining but the epitaph of the artificer, in which he is highly applauded for his labours. There likewise exist other works of the same kind, in the armadj, chests, or presses, of the sacristy, and, as it is supposed, also in some of the confessionals. Besides Lorenzo, his brother Cristofano, and his son-in-law Pierantonio, who assisted him in these labours, are equally applauded by Matteo Siculo, as worthy of vieing with Phidias and Apelles themselves. Tiraboschi likewise enumerates the two brothers among the artists of Modena, whose fellow citizens they were.

But the fame of these soon expired. For Giovanni da Verona, a layman of Oliveto, not long after, surpassed them in the same art. He practised it in various cities of Italy, and at Rome itself, in the service of Pope Julius II; but still more successfully in the sacristy of his own order, where his works are still to be seen in the best condition. F. Vincenzo delle Vacche, also a native of Verona, and a layman of Oliveto, mentioned by the learned Morelli in his _Notizia_ of works of design, during the first half of the sixteenth century, deserves mention here for the merit of his inlaid works; and in particular for those wrought in Padua, at the church of S. Benedetto Novello. Unacquainted, however, with the period in which he flourished, I shall not venture to announce him either as a pupil or assistant to Fra Giovanni. Similar productions, from the hand of Fra Raffaello da Brescia, also of Oliveto, adorning the choir of S. Michele in Bosco at Bologna, might here be mentioned in competition with those in the sacristy of Verona, by natives of Oliveto.

Moreover, there remains Fra Damiano da Bergamo, a Dominican monk, who ornamented his own church at Bergamo, and that of Bologna in a still better style; in which the choir is inlaid with the greatest art. In S. Pietro, at Perugia, he also wrought the most beautiful histories. The same artist, as we find recorded in Vasari, succeeded also in refining the art of colours and of shades, to such a degree as to be held the very first in this line. He possessed either a rival, or a pupil, in Gianfrancesco Capodiferro, whose mansions at S. Maria Maggiore, in Bergamo, are the finest specimens of the kind, though occasionally betraying some traces of stiffness in their manner. There too he worked after the designs of Lotto, and instructed in the art his brother Pietro and his son Zinino, so that the city continued to be supplied with excellent artificers during a number of years. The largest and most artificially wrought figures I have seen in this line are in a choir of the Certosa at Pavia, distributed one by one upon each side. The artificer is said to have been one Bartolommeo da Pola, whose name I have not met with elsewhere. In each of the squares is represented a bust of one of the Apostles, or some other saint, designed in the taste of the Da Vinci School. A few of the pictures of these artists are to be found in galleries of art; among which, those from the hand of F. Damiano are the most esteemed. Finally, this species of workmanship, embracing materials too much exposed to the moth and to the fire, by degrees began to grow out of date: and if more lately it appears to have again revived, it has failed hitherto in producing any works deserving of commemoration.

[Footnote 6: Rannusio Guerra di Costantinopoli, book iii. p. 94.]

[Footnote 7: Vol. vi. p. 88, anno 1808.]

[Footnote 8: See his _Descrizione delle Pitture_, &c. p. 19. The learned Morelli also, in his Annotations to the _Notizia_, confirms, by fresh arguments, the same epoch, p. 146.]

[Footnote 9: Page 101.]

[Footnote 10: This was given to the public by Muratori, with the following title--_Riccobaldi Ferrariensis, sive anonimi scriptoris compilatio chronologica usque ad annum 1312._ (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. ix. p. 255.)]

[Footnote 11: Sig. Sasso observed one extremely like it in Venice, with the subscription _Guglielmus pinxit_, 1368; from which he inferred that he had belonged to the school of Guariento.]

[Footnote 12: This _Sebeto_ of Vasari appeared so new to Maffei, that he would willingly have substituted Stefano; (_see Ver. Illust._ p. iii. col. 152,) but Stefano da Verona, or da Zevio, is a name posterior to these times. The _Notizia_ of the anonymous writer, recently published, says, that the church of the before mentioned S. George was ornamented by "Jacopo Davanzo, a Paduan, or a Veronese, if not, as some will have it, a Bolognese; by Altichiero Veronese, according to Campagnuola, p. 6." It must be observed that Vasari also consulted the latter, or probably one of his Latin letters to Niccolo Leonico Tomeo, quoting it several times. (See Morelli, p. 101.) Now in this it was probably written, _ab Alticherio de Jebeto_; that is, da Zevio, which was at one time called _Jebetum_, and Vasari believed it to be the name of an unknown painter. Such is the conjecture communicated to me by Sig. Brandolese, and it appears extremely probable.]

[Footnote 13: Signor Abbate Morelli, since P. della Valle, has discovered another painting existing in the Sacristy of the Padri Conventuali, at Vicenza, with this inscription, 1333, PAULUS DE VENETIIS PINXIT HOC OPUS, (_Notiz._ p. 222). He adds also, two other Venetian painters, with whom I have enriched this new edition; the name of one found in a small picture of the Conventuali, at S. Arcangelo, under an image of the Virgin, among various saints, dated 1385. _Jachobelus de Bonomo Venetus pinxit hoc opus._ The other, in the territory of Verruchio, on a crucifixion, with the symbols of the four Evangelists, is in the possession of the Agostiniani, and inscribed 1404: _Nicholaus Paradixi miles de Venetiis pinxit_.]

[Footnote 14: Among these is counted Stefano Pievano, of St. Agnese, an able artist, who left his name along with the date, 1381, on an altarpiece of the _Assumption_:--a piece in which the Venetian colouring is displayed to advantage, while the expression, lively and full of meaning, compensates for its inaccuracy of design. Another artist deserving of being known is Jacopo di _Alberegno_, whose family still remains in Venice, and who has been ascertained to be the author of a painting without date, representing the Crucifixion of our Saviour, among various saints. Tommaso da Modena has also been referred to the Venetian School, who, about the period of 1351, produced two Holy Virgins at Venice; a St. Catherine, at present in the gallery of N. H. Ascanio Molin, together with the two preceding, and other rare Venetian pictures of the same epoch; and a S. Barbara, belonging to the Abbate Mauro Boni, so fraught with expression, grace, and power of colouring, as to lead me to conjecture he had flourished at a much later period, were it not for the inscribed date. His beginning to be known at Venice is some reason why he should be referred to this school, if the name of his native place, _de Mutina_, did not restrain us from so doing without some further doubt. The Ab. Boni, who has given us an account of these pictures in an article put forth by the Italian academy, was the first to discover them.]

[Footnote 15: Before their time, however, Bergamo could boast a school of painting, as witness what Count Tassi adduces in a parchment of the year 1296, naming a certain Guglielmo, _pittore_. It does not appear in what style he drew. One of his successors, who painted the tree of St. Bonaventura, abounding in sacred figures, shews himself an artist more rude, indeed, but more original than either of the brothers de Nova. Of his name we are, however, ignorant, as he only attached the date of 1347.]

[Footnote 16: In the work intitled _Narrazione dell'Isola di Murano_, by _G. A. Moschini_, the supposition I have above stated has been combated by its excellent author. A picture in the gallery of the N. H. Molin, at Venice, subscribed _Johannes Vivarinus_, seems to have persuaded him of my mistake. In a work embracing an account of some thousand painters, I cannot pretend to boast of its being free from some human errors, and was about to express my gratitude to the above mentioned author for having pointed one of them out. But I am now convinced that the picture is from the hand of another artist, and that the signature in question is a forgery, the author of which has confounded the character of what is called Gothic and Roman, in place of imitating the true character of those times, which he might very easily have done, inasmuch as he had before his eyes a small chart, with a most devout oration, _Deus meus charitas_, &c. in the most complete Gothic, or rather German character that can be conceived. The impostor therefore must have been extremely ignorant of his art. The examination was made by the cavalier Gio. da Lazara, Abate Mauro Boni, Bartolommeo Gamba, names sufficiently known to the public to justify our adoption of their opinion. The very able Brandolese has likewise pronounced the inscription false, and published thereon a little work, entitled "_Doubts respecting the existence of such a painter as Giovanni Vivarino da Murano, newly confirmed; and a refutation of some recently asserted authority, to confirm them_." And in this he displays much sound criticism, and many arguments, all tending to strengthen my own conjecture.]

[Footnote 17: This artist ought not to be confounded with Jacometto da Venezia, a miniature painter, and artist of the same age, but who flourished somewhat later. He also was celebrated in his day, and is frequently recorded in the _Notizia Morelli_, for his small pictures, adapted for private rooms, his portraits, and his miniatures. It was sometimes doubted whether a certain work was from the hand of John of Bruges, of Antonello da Messina, or of Jacometto da Venezia. (_See Notizia Morelli_, p. 74.)]

[Footnote 18: The picture referred to by the P. Moschini, in his _Narrazione dell'Isola di Murano_, is not to be admitted as genuine, the inscription upon it being forged by the same author, who counterfeited that of Giovanni Vivarini, before alluded to in the note to page 22.]

[Footnote 19: See _Morelli Notizia_, p. 157.]

[Footnote 20: I had supposed, in my first edition of this work, misled by the opposite names, that Sebeto was a different personage from this Stefano da Zevio. I was afterwards undeceived by the appearance of the work of the learned Brandolese, pronouncing them one and the same artist; and I willingly here retract what I had before advanced, expressing, at the same time, my acknowledgements for the emendation.]

[Footnote 21: _Drawn in the most perfect manner_, are the words of Vasari, while he adds, that the whole of his works were imitated and copied by Pietro di Perugia, an experienced artist in _fresco_, and more especially in miniature, with which "he ornamented the whole of the books in the library of Pope Pius," in the dome at Siena. He is not known, however, in Perugia, nor mentioned at Siena among those employed at the cathedral, as is noticed by Father della Valle; yet the present work abounds with examples of artists, unknown in their own cities, on account of having resided elsewhere; and the before mentioned annotator of Vasari was unable to discover the name of Liberal da Verona, an undoubted illustrator of the books, in such registers. I think we ought not to refuse to give credit, therefore, to Vasari, as Father Guglielmo insists; but to admit a new Pietro di Perugia, anterior to Vanucci, who might design the frescos of Stefano in Verona and Mantua, so extolled in the early part of 1400, and who copied them in those very beautiful and graceful miniatures at Siena; an art which he probably acquired at Verona, where it was then in such high repute.]

[Footnote 22: See on this head, the _Descrizione delle Bellezze di Vicenza_, P. 1. p. 7.]

[Footnote 23: In the cathedral of Pordenone, under one of his altarpieces, we read--

"Andreas Zeusis nostraeque aetatis Apelles Hoc Bellunellus nobile pinxit opus." (_Altan._)]

[Footnote 24: Ruggieri indeed had acquired a great reputation in Italy as early as 1449, when Ciriaco Anconitano, being in Ferrara, saw a picture of Christ taken from the cross, belonging to the Duke. He thus writes respecting the artist: _Rugerus Brugiensis pictorum decus_ AGATHEI TUCHEI.--_Rugierius in Brussella post praeclarum illum Brugiensem picturae decus Joannem, insignis N. T. Pictor habetur_, &c. See Colucci A. P. vol. xxiii. p. 143. He is also commended in high terms by Bartolommeo Facio in his little work _De viris illustribus_. See Morelli, _Notizia_, p. 239.]

[Footnote 25: He arrived there, and was at Rome in the _anno Santo_. See Facius, lib. cit. p. 45.]

[Footnote 26: This is one of the usual mistakes found in Vasari. Baldinucci (tom. iv. p. 17) calls him Ans or Hans. This is his Flemish appellation, which in our tongue, signifies Giovanni; and in the _Notizia_ Morelli he is termed Gianes da Brugia; somewhat nearer our own tongue. With Sansovino he is Gio. di Bruggia, John of Bruges. See Morelli, p. 117; and by him he is distinguished from _Gio. Van Eych_.]

[Footnote 27: In a similar taste was the perspective introduced by Giovanni Bellino in his celebrated altarpiece at San Zaccaria, in Venice. Another was placed in the great altar of the dome at Capo d'Istria, by Carpaccio the elder, still more striking. In the background of the picture, the virgin appears seated on a magnificent throne, with the divine infant, in an upright posture, upon her knees, surrounded by six of the most venerable patrons of the place, disposed around her, in three ranks, displaying a fine diversity of drapery as well as of action. To these are added some cherubs, engaged in playing upon musical instruments, and apparently beholding the spectator with an air of puerile simplicity, as if inviting him to caress them. A long and lofty colonnade, in excellent perspective, leads the way to the throne, at one time united to a fine stone colonnade, which extended from the altarpiece through the chapel, producing a fine illusion, amounting to a sort of enchantment of perspective. It was removed along with the stone columns, in order to enlarge the tribune. The oldest citizens, who witnessed this beautiful spectacle, speak of it to strangers with delight, and I am glad to put it on record, before the recollection of it be entirely obliterated.]

[Footnote 28: _Notizia_, p. 63.]

[Footnote 29: Albert Durer, arriving the same year at Venice, bestowed on Giovanni one of the most favourable testimonies to his talents that now remains. After rebuking the envy of the other painters, who spoke of him with contempt, he says of him:--"Every one assures me that he is _Gran Galantuomo_, for which reason I wish him well. He is already very old, but, notwithstanding, the best painter we have." V. _Morel. Not._ p. 224.]

[Footnote 30: The country is impressed with this persuasion in spite of his own signatures, attached even to the pictures in Istria. In that, cited at page 48, it is written _Victor Charpatius Venetus pinxit, 1516_; in another, at San Francesco di Pirano, _Victoris Charpatii Veneti opus, 1519_. Benedetto Carpaccio, probably a son or nephew of the preceding, was also a Venetian, of whom there remains a picture of the Coronation of the Virgin, at Capo d'Istria, in the Rotunda, subscribed, _Benetto Carpathio Veneto pingeva, 1537_. At the Osservanti, is the picture of the _Nome di Gesu_, with the same words, but dated 1541. He is not mentioned in Venetian history, though highly deserving a place in it; for whatever traces he retains of the ancient stiffness of manner, in the extremity of his figures, yet he yields not to many in softness of tints; in the taste of his colours; expression of features, and the effect of his chiaroscuro. I am led to think, that from residing out of the capital, this artist was supposed to be a native of Istria, but he was indisputably of a Venetian family, most probably tracing its origin from Murano.]