Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 05 (of 10): Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo LottoVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 05 (of 10): Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo Lotto
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo had come to Rome in the time of Raffaello,
in order to attain with his works to that perfection which he believed
himself to be already grasping with his intellect. And being a young man
who had some fame at Bologna and had awakened expectations, he was set
to execute a work in the Church of the Pace at Rome, in the first chapel
on the right hand as one enters the church, above the chapel of
Baldassarre Peruzzi of Siena. But, thinking that he had not achieved the
success that he had promised himself, he returned to Bologna. There he
and the others mentioned above, in competition one with another,
executed each a scene from the Lives of Christ and His Mother in the
Chapel of the Madonna in S. Petronio, near the door of the facade, on
the right hand as one enters the church; among which little difference
in merit is to be seen between one and another. But Bartolommeo acquired
from this work the reputation of having a manner both softer and
stronger than the others; and although there is a vast number of strange
things in the scene of Maestro Amico, in which he depicted the
Resurrection of Christ with armed men in crouching and distorted
attitudes, and many soldiers crushed flat by the stone of the Sepulchre,
which has fallen upon them, nevertheless that of Bartolommeo, as having
more unity of design and colouring, was more extolled by other
craftsmen. On account of this Bartolommeo associated himself with Biagio
Bolognese, a person with much more practice than excellence in art; and
they executed in company at S. Salvatore, for the Frati Scopetini, a
refectory which they painted partly in fresco and partly "a secco,"
containing the scene of Christ satisfying five thousand people with five
loaves and two fishes. They painted, also, on a wall of the library, the
Disputation of S. Augustine, wherein they made a passing good view in
perspective. These masters, thanks to having seen the works of Raffaello
and associated with him, had a certain quality which, upon the whole,
gave promise of excellence, but in truth they did not attend as they
should have done to the more subtle refinements of art. Yet, since there
were no painters in Bologna at that time who knew more than they did,
they were held by those who then governed the city, as well as by all
the people, to be the best masters in Italy.
[Illustration: THE HOLY FAMILY WITH SAINTS
(_After the panel by =Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo=. Bologna: Accademia,
133_)
_Anderson_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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