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
Rome, a most splendid gallery, painted by the greatest artists of that
age. A portrait of one Andrea Boscoli, his pupil and imitator, remains
in the royal museum of Florence, and many of his paintings with horses
are dispersed through the city. He travelled into different parts,
leaving various specimens of his art in different countries, at S.
Ginesio, at Fabriano, and other places in the district of Piceno. His
largest work is a S. John the Baptist in the attitude of prayer, at the
Teresiani of Rimino; a picture that shews invention, but it was unknown
to Baldinucci, who compiled anecdotes of this artist. Constantino de'
Servi is conjectured by Baldinucci to be a scholar of Titi. He is well
known to have been originally his imitator, and having gone into
Germany, there adopted the style of Pourbus. In foreign countries he
seems to have painted few portraits, a branch in which he had greater
merit than employment. His celebrity was greater as a master architect
and engraver of gems, as we shall notice in a subsequent epoch. In
closing the account of the school of Santi, it may be proper to observe,
that his example reclaimed a great proportion of the succeeding
generation, and inclined artists to mitigate the severity of the style
of Michelangiolo, by introducing more grace in the contours, and a
better taste in the heads.
Batista Naldini holds the third rank among the scholars of Bronzino. He
was first the pupil of Pontormo, afterwards of Bronzino, and having
resided some time at Rome, he was chosen by Vasari as the companion of
his labours in the old palace, and retained by him about fourteen years.
The historian makes honourable mention of Naldini, even when a young
man, and denominates him a painter skilful and vigorous, expeditious and
indefatigable. Naldini obtained similar praise in Rome from Baglione,
especially for the chapel of John the Baptist, at Trinità de' Monti,
which he painted with the history of the saint. He painted many pictures
in his native city, some of which, as the taking down from the Cross,
and the Purification of the Virgin, are commended by Borghini for the
colouring and the design, for the disposition, the perspective, and the
attitudes. The defects observable in most of his pictures are, that the
knees are rather too much swollen, the eyes too open, and marked with a
certain fierceness, by which he may be generally recognized; his
colouring is also characteristic, and those changeable hues in which he
delighted more than any other artist of the age.
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