TAINTING. 



r.MNTixi;. 



n 



Bouton. The v>et school of peJiitor. farmed by Raft-lie was totally 

 teentd : it spread howcw the elements of hi. style all over Italy, 

 Mouth Marcely siagU beauty of the original WM to any extent 



IB UM pontificate of I'sul III., the art* commenced again to revive 

 fa Rome. Michel Angelo executed hi* grmt work of the Last Judg- 

 MS*. Uw labour oftfcht yean, by the orders of thu pontiff : it was 

 euaujtted in 1541. The eflect however of this work was for a tune 

 fatal to painting; hotto of copyiete and mannerisu arose, who, pos- 

 n*d with a mania for representing UM naked figure, and atfoini 

 everything to anatomical display, imagined the perfection of design to 

 eotMMt in violent acUua and muecnlar protuberance ; and in imitating 

 MMMT they h-yE 1 *""* they had acquired the art of Michel Angelo. 



This great petter/who in UM time of Julius II. ha. I hinuelf been 

 ehWAr instrumental in raiting pi"''"g nearer to perfection than it has 

 ever attained IB modern times, lived also to see it degenerate, greatly 

 through U* own influence, into a mere handicraft in the time of Pim 

 IV.. when a reference to nature was considered as an acknowlegment 



The most Slinguished mannerisU of this school and period, whose 

 style we* a species of compound of those of Raflaelle and Mi.-h.-l 

 Angelo. without the correctness or purity of the former, and with only 

 UM manner of the Utter, were Taddeo and Federigo Zuocari. The 

 former died young. The Utter executed vast works at Florence, 

 which were, however, remarkable for their vastness alone ; and he lias 

 left enedmens of his pencil in the principal cities of Italy. He suc- 

 asuno Muxiano as president of the Academy of St. Luke at 

 which had been Utely founded by Gregory XIII. at the instance 

 ..fMunano, Gregory was elected in 1 572. 



The following exceptions should be mentioned, as being distinguUhfd 

 for their greater propriety of style, from the general host of man- 

 nrrieta: Girolamo SicioUnte of Sermoneta, Marccllo Venusti, and 

 Livio Agresti, all scholars of IVrino d,-l Vnga ; also Scipione Pulzone, 

 called GaeUno, the scholar of Giacopo del Conte, both excellent in 

 portrait. 



Guiseppe Ceeari d' Arpino succeeded Fedcrigo Zuccaro in public esti- 

 mation at Rome ; but though without a rival in that city until the 

 appearance of Michel Angelo Amerighi, II Caravaggio, he cannot be 

 aid to belong to the Roman school The heavy and vulgar nature of 

 Caravaggio'* style wai in direct opposition to the, ideal mannerism of 

 Cesari's. They both had their partisans, who were termed respectively 

 naturaUsti and idealist! ; the Utter prevailed. Annibale Caracci also 

 endeavoured in vain to reform taste in Rome : the works of this great 

 maitw in the Palaxxo Fameee bad little or no effect upon the style of 

 the Roman painters of the period, and Ceaari left a numerous school of 

 imitator*. But these noble works, certainly inferior only to those of 

 Michel Angelo and Raflaelle in Rome, eventually had their effect, and 

 painting was again restored to something approaching iU former splen- 

 dour; and what the painters of Bologna hod borrowed from the Romans 

 in the pontificate of Clement VII., the pupils of the Caracci returned 

 with interest in that of Urban Mil. 



A better style was adopted by Federigo Baroccio of Urbino, which 

 might boast of a nearer approach to the correctness of form of the 

 great founder of the Roman school ; but his colouring was generally 

 artificial, and very different from that of Raflaelle. Its tone is 

 unpleasant, a cold violet hue prevails throughout, and there is a 

 striking deficiency of yellow in his carnations, which in the lights are 

 pink, in the shadows gray. Baroccio had several imitators, but his 

 influence upon the general character of Roman art was inconsiderable. 

 The Eclectic school of Bologna seems to have had the principal share 

 in reforming the art in Rome. During the pontificates of Paul V., 

 Gregory XV., and Urban VIII., [the celebrated pupils of the Caracci, 

 Domrnichino, Quido, Guercino, and Lanfranco, were much employed 

 by those pontiffs ; and the example of these great masters, but more 

 especially of Domenichino, produced many good painters, of whom we 

 may mention the following : Antonio Ricci (called Barbalunga), 

 rinel. Giovanni Carbone, Francesco Cozza, Pietro del Po, Canini, 

 GUtnbatute Paseeri, and I.uigi Scaramuccia, and there were many 

 others of condderablr merit. The school of the Caracci seems to have 

 had a more immediate influence upon portrait-painting, truth or 

 fidelity of representation being indispensably requisite to constitute 

 excellence in portraiture. The excessive mannerism of the painters of 

 the period had so generally incapacitated them for executing anything 

 excellent in that department, that it began to be nearly a distinct pro- 

 fession, and the following masters distinguished themselves as excellent 

 portrait painter*, though they did not confine themselves quite exclu- 

 sively to portrait* : Ant-nm di Monti, Pietro Fachetti, Antonio 

 Scalvati, Urammatica, OUavio Leoni, and Baldassare Alloisi, called 

 Galanino. 



Upon the imitators of Domenichino followed the bold style of 

 Lanfiaoco, whose most soecesaful scholar was Giacinto Brandi; and 

 flonUtnporary with Unfranco flourished Albano in Rome. I'ier 

 Franeeeoo MoU was n imitator of his style. 



From the studio of Albano came Andrea Sacchi, a painter who drew 

 well and coloured admirably, who never bestowed labour upon a trifle, 

 and who WM better versed in the theory of art than any of his contem- 

 poraries or imtnrdiste predi cesson. There b a grandeur about hi* 

 rtyle, and a troth and breadth In his execution, which distinguish him 



as one of the noblest disciples of the Roman school, second only to 

 (iiulio Romano in im.-ntion, and in all other respects inferior to its 

 great founder alone. lUIEwlle was his model of perfection ; but he 

 was no servile imitator : he could appreciate also the beauties of Titian 

 and of Correggio ; and he had recourse to the same sources through 

 which his gnat model attained to excellence nature and the aiiti.pi.-, 

 but he availed himself only so far of the antique as it served to regulate 

 bis study of nature. 



N inconsiderable ornament also of the arts of Koine of this period 

 was Nicholas Poussin, for though a Frenchman l>y liirtli, lie was essen- 

 tially a Roman painter. He formed his style from I: ," 

 antique. He attended also the academies of Dcsneniahmo :m.l of 

 Sacchi, being a great admirer of the works of those masters. 1 1 

 was however very peculiar, and had no influence upon the arts in 

 Rome; his works have too much the appearance of painted bassi- 

 rilievi. 



Pietro Berrettini, called also Pietro da Cortona, set himself up as 

 the rival of Sacchi in Home ; and if the number of imitators is a 

 criterion of the degree of excellence, Pietro da Cortona was cci 

 superior to Sacchi. The art of Sacchi was not so easily imitated. Thu 

 style of Cortona was rich and attractive, but superficial and incorrect, 

 and he takes the lead in that class of painters termed in 

 the Italians. 



The scholars of these two masters formed two rival factions of art, 

 which divided Rome: that of Sacclii was headed by Carlo Maratti, 

 tmp|N>rtod I'V Ludovico <!arzi; that of Cortona by Giro Ferri. sup; 

 by Romanelli. Bernini, who, during the pontificates of Urban VII 1. 

 and Innocent X., in matters of art was all-powerful in Rome, opposed, 

 as was to be expected, that jarty which was conspicuous for good 

 taste ; and for a time the machinists prevailed. But the school of 

 Cortona was predominant only in fresco, for in oil M.ir.itt.i wa 

 unrivalled. In 1689, however, Ciro died, and Maratta stood alone ; 

 and upon the accession of Innocent XII., in 1091, he was appointed 

 inspector of the stauze of the Vatican, and in 1702, by the orders of 

 Clement XI., he restored the works of Raffaelle in those apartments, 

 which had considerably suffered through time and neglect. He had 

 restored previously the frescoes of Annibale Cnracci in the Palazzo 

 Farnese. He died in 1713. HU style was generally considerably less 

 vigorous than that of Sacchi, and both his colouring and his compo- 

 sition were occasionally artificial ; his drawing was also sou. 

 incorrect ; and his taste was upon the whole very inferior to his master's, 

 though his style has been termed more graceful. 



Maratta formed a most numerous school, but its chief charact 

 were the studied composition and affected grace which are the blemish, H 

 of his own style. 



Maratta has been termed the last of the Romans, and perhaps he may 

 be safely termed the last of the Romans who has merited the u 

 a great painter ; for neither Pompeo Baton! nor Mengs can be said to 

 dispute that claim with him, though both are deservedly celebrated 

 names. The former gave too much importance to high finish ; the 

 latter was too blindly devoted to the antique. Baton! painted excellent 

 portraits, and Mengs drew correotly, but he was so eager after the 

 ideal that he lost nature in the search of it ; in this respect Baton! has 

 greatly the advantage over Meugs. They were both eminent! 

 demic, and for mere technical excellence have not often been equalled ; 

 but there is a palpable absence of the " mens divinior " and moral senti- 

 ment in their works, which are more than ordinarily conspiuous for 

 that insipidity and monotony so generally attendant upon the fastidious 

 preciseness of academic art. 



The Jioloynete School divides with the schools of Tuscany, Rome, and 

 Venice, the honour of having assisted in bringing about the great 

 revival of painting in Italy in the 13th century. But unlike them its 

 advance was slow ; it had no great painter to share in tlie glory of that 

 brilliant epoch, the beginning of the 16th century, when the greatest 

 masters of Italian painting flourished contemporaneously. Its culmi- 

 nating point was reached much later, and then hardly as the result of 

 original genius. The school of Bologna is chiefly remembered as an 

 eclectic school. Its heads, the Caracci, sought to achieve the highest 

 excellence by imitating and combining the peculiar excellencies of the 

 great masters of other schools: and in tli.' opinion of their contem- 

 poraries they succeeded. Not only by their countrymen, but by th<- 

 painters of other schools their prim-iples were adopted ; and their 

 influence thus extending throughout Italy, and coinciding with the 

 tendencies of the age, served to repress what little originality remained 

 and to produce everywhere a uniformity of academic mediocrity. 

 This school is therefore historically one of the most important in 

 modern art, but we need not speak further of it here, having already 

 treated of it under BOLOOXEBE SCHOOL OF PAINTIXO. 



Of other Italian schools our notice must necessarily be very brief. 

 Chief of these are the Schoolt of Lombardy, which however are so 

 broken up and subdivided, almost every city claiming a school of its 

 own, that even if our space permitted, it would be tedious to retrace 

 so often the same ground as would be necessary in speaking of them 

 however cursorily. Lanzi bos given the history at length of no less 

 than five Lombard schools; those namely of Mantua, Modona, Parma, 

 Cremona, and Milan. Of these the most famous, as having produced 

 Correggio and so imparted a distinct character to Lombard painting, 

 u that of Parma. But Andrea Mantegnn, a native of Padua (born 



