Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo ZuccheroVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo Zucchero
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
In Brescia, also, there have been, and still are, persons most
excellent in the arts of design, and, among others, Girolamo Romanino
has executed innumerable works in that city. The altar-piece on the
high-altar of S. Francesco, which is a passing good picture, is by his
hand, and so also the little shutters that enclose it, which are painted
in distemper both within and without; and his work, likewise, is another
altar-piece executed in oils that is very beautiful, wherein may be seen
masterly imitations of natural objects. But more able than that Girolamo
was Alessandro Moretto, who painted in fresco, under the arch of the
Porta Brusciata, the Translation of the bodies of SS. Faustino and
Jovita, with some groups of figures that are accompanying those bodies,
all very well done. For S. Nazzaro, also in Brescia, he executed certain
works, and others for S. Celso, which are passing good, and an
altar-piece for S. Piero in Oliveto, which is full of charm. At Milan,
in the house of the Mint, there is a picture by the hand of that same
Alessandro with the Conversion of S. Paul, and other heads that are very
natural, with beautiful adornments of draperies and vestments, for the
reason that he much delighted to counterfeit cloth of gold and of
silver, velvets, damasks, and other draperies of every kind, which he
used to place on the figures with great diligence. The heads by the hand
of that master are very lifelike, and hold to the manner of Raffaello da
Urbino, and even more would they hold to it if he had not lived so far
from Raffaello.
The son-in-law of Alessandro was Lattanzio Gambara, a painter of
Brescia, who, having learned his art, as has been related, under Giulio
Campo of Verona,[3] is now the best painter that there is in Brescia. By
his hand, in the Black Friars Church of S. Faustino, are the altar-piece
of the high-altar, and the vaulting and walls painted in fresco, with
other pictures that are in the same church. In the Church of S. Lorenzo,
also, the altar-piece of the high-altar is by his hand, with two scenes
that are on the walls, and the vaulting, all painted in fresco almost in
the same manner. He has also painted, besides many other facades, that
of his own house, with most beautiful inventions, and likewise the
interior; in which house, situated between S. Benedetto and the
Vescovado, I saw, when I was last in Brescia, two very beautiful
portraits by his hand, that of Alessandro Moretto, his father-in-law,
which is a very lovely head of an old man, and that of the same
Alessandro's daughter, his wife. And if the other works of Lattanzio
were equal to those portraits, he would be able to compare with the
greatest men of his art. But, since his works are without number, and he
himself besides is still living, it must suffice for the present to have
made mention of those named.
[Footnote 3: Rather, of Cremona.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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