The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 1 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth CenturyLanzi, Luigi
History
The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 1 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Lanzi, Luigi
Painting -- Italy -- History
Many other figures and historic compositions were designed by
Michelangiolo, and painted at Rome by F. Sebastiano del Piombo, an
excellent colourist of the Venetian school. The Pietà in the church of
S. Francis of Viterbo,[164] the Flagellation, and Transfiguration, with
some other pieces at S. Pietro in Montorio, are of this number. Two
Annunciations, designed by Bonarruoti, were coloured for altar-pieces by
Marcello Venusti of Mantua, a scholar of Perino, who adopted the style
of Michelangiolo, without apparent affectation. The one was put up in
the church of S. Giovanni Laterano, the other in the Della Pace. He is
said to have painted also some cabinet pictures after designs of
Bonarruoti; as the Limbo,[165] in the Colonna palace; the Christ going
to Mount Calvary, and some other pieces in the Borghese; also the
celebrated copy of the Last Judgment, which he painted for Cardinal
Farnese, that still exists in Naples. Although a good designer, and the
author of many pieces described by Baglione, he obtained greater
celebrity by clothing the inventions of Michelangiolo in exquisite
beauty, especially in small pictures, of which, Vasari says, he executed
a great many. This writer, and Orlandi following him, have erroneously
named him Raffaello, not Marcello. Batista Franco coloured the Rape of
Ganymede, after a design of Bonarruoti, which was also done by the
artist who painted the small picture which D'Argenville describes in
France; and another on a larger scale, to be seen at Rome in the
possession of the Colonna family: it was also painted in oil by Giulio
Clovio. Pontormo employed himself in a similar manner at Florence, on
the design of Venus and Cupid; and on the cartoon of Christ appearing to
Mary Magdalen, a work which was re-executed by him for Città di
Castello, Bonarruoti having said, that none could perform it better.
Francesco Salviati painted another of his designs, and Bugiardini, as we
have already noticed, executed some figures designed by him. Such is the
information transmitted to us by Vasari; and he would have been justly
reprehensible if he had written with such minuteness on the drawings of
Michelangiolo, and of those employed to finish them, and had neglected
to inform us as to those pieces which Michelangiolo himself executed.
Hence it is not easy to avoid scepticism on the genuineness of the
Annunciation, the Flagellation, or any other oil painting ascribed to
Bonarruoti by Bottari, D'Argenville, or the describers of collections.
We have noticed his aversion to this method of painting. We are informed
that during his lifetime he employed others in this branch; and we know
that after his death artists availed themselves of his designs; as
Sabbatini did in a Pietà for the sacristy of the Church of S. Peter, a
work copied by some other artist for the Madonna de' Monti, and some
others made known to us by Baglione. Can we then hesitate as to the
originality of any picture, if we give credit to the oil paintings of
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