Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3)Spooner, Shearjashub
History
Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3)
Spooner, Shearjashub
Art -- Anecdotes; Artists -- Anecdotes
Giovanni Baptista Gaulli, called Baciccio, one of the most eminent
Genoese painters, was no less celebrated for portraits than for history.
Pascoli says he painted no less than seven different Pontiffs, besides
many illustrious personages. Possessing great colloquial powers, he
engaged his sitters in the most animated conversation, and thus
transferred their features to his canvas, so full of life and
expression, that they looked as though they were about to speak to the
beholder. He also had a remarkable talent of painting the dead, so as to
obtain an exact resemblance of deceased persons whom he had never seen.
For this purpose, he drew a face at random, afterwards altering it in
every feature, by the advice and under the inspection of those who had
known the original, till he had improved it to a striking likeness.
TADDEO ZUCCARO.
This eminent painter was born at San Angiolo, in the Duchy of Urbino, in
1529. At a very early age he evinced a passion for art and a precocious
genius. After having received instruction from his father, a painter of
little note, his extraordinary enthusiasm induced him, at fourteen years
of age, to go to Rome, without a penny in his pocket, where he passed
the day in designing, from the works of Raffaelle. Such was his poverty,
that he was compelled to sleep under the loggie of the Chigi palace; he
contrived to get money enough barely to supply the wants of nature, by
grinding colors for the shops. Undaunted by difficulties that would have
driven a less devoted lover of the art from the field, he pursued his
studies with undiminished ardor, till his talents and industry attracted
the notice of Daniello da Por, an artist then in repute, who generously
relieved his wants and gave him instruction. From that time he made
rapid progress, and soon acquired a distinguished reputation, but he
died at Rome in 1566, in the prime of life.
ZUCCARO'S RESENTMENT.
Federigo Zuccaro, the brother of Taddeo, was employed by Pope Gregory
XIII. in the Pauline chapel. While proceeding with his work, however, he
fell out with some of the Pope's officers; and conceiving himself
treated with indignity, he painted an allegorical picture of Calumny,
introducing the portraits of all those individuals who had offended him,
decorated with asses' ears. This he caused to be exhibited publicly over
the gate of St. Luke's church, on the festival day of that Saint. His
enemies, upon this, made such complaints that he was forced to fly from
Rome, and passing into France, he visited Flanders and England. As soon
as the pontiff was appeased, he returned to Rome, and completed his work
in the Pauline chapel, fortunate in not losing his head as the price of
such a daring exploit.
ROYAL CRITICISM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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