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
Florence.
Cosimo Rosselli, whose noble family has produced several other artists,
also wrought in the Sistine Chapel. Few of his works remain in public
places in his own country, besides the miracle of the sacrament in the
church of S. Ambrose, a fresco picture, full of portraits; in which we
discover variety, character, and truth. Vasari praises his labours at
Rome, less than those of his fellow artists. Being unable to rival his
competitors in design, he loaded his pictures with brilliant colours and
gilded ornaments, which, though it was at that time condemned by an
improving taste, yet pleased the pontiff, who commended and rewarded him
beyond all the other artists. Perhaps his best work there, is Christ
preaching on the mount, in which the landscape is said to be the work of
Pier di Cosimo, a painter likewise more remarkable for his colouring
than his design; as is evident from a picture in the church of the
Innocents, and his Perseus in the royal gallery. They are both, however,
celebrated in history; the one as the master of del Porta, the other of
Andrea del Sarto.
No other Florentine was employed to paint in the Sistine Chapel; but
Piero and Antonio Pollaiuoli, who were both statuaries and painters,
came there not long afterwards and wrought in bronze the tomb of Sixtus
IV. Some of their paintings may yet be seen in the church of S. Miniato,
without the walls of Florence, and the altar-piece was transferred to
the royal museum. We may there trace the school of Castagno, the master
of Piero, in the harsh features, coloured in a strong and juicy manner.
Antonio, the scholar of Piero, became one of the best painters of that
age. In the chapel of the Marchesi Pucci, at the church of St.
Sebastiano de' Servi, there is a martyrdom of the saint by him, which is
one of the best pictures of the fifteenth century I have ever seen. The
colouring is not in the best style; but the composition rises above the
age in which he lived, and the drawing of the naked figure shews what
attention he had bestowed on anatomy. He was the first Italian painter
who dissected bodies in order to learn the true situations of the
tendons and muscles. Both the Pollaiuoli died at Rome, where their tomb
is to be seen in S. Piero in Vincoli, ornamented with a picture, which,
according to some, typifies a soul in purgatory, and the efficacy of
indulgences to deliver it; but whether it is by them, or of their
school, I am unable to determine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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