The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 2 (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. 2 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Lanzi, Luigi
Painting -- Italy -- History
celebrated scholar, Francesco Lauri, may be read in the life of that
artist, written by Pascoli, who, as I have before remarked, collected
the greater part of his information from the old painters in Rome. He
has probably engrafted on them some sentiments either of his own or of
others, as often happens in a narrative when the related facts are
founded more in probability than in certainty; but the maxims there
inculcated by Sacchi are worthy of an artist strongly attached to the
true, the select, and the grand; and who, to give dignity to his
figures, seems to have had his eyes on the precepts of Quintilian
respecting the action of his orator. He had a vast number of scholars,
among whom we may reckon Giuseppe Sacchi, his son, who became a
conventual monk, and painted a picture in the sacristy, in the church of
the Apostles. But his most illustrious disciple was Maratta, of whom,
and of whose scholars, we shall speak in another epoch.
We find a follower of the Caracci, though we know not of what particular
master, in Giambatista Salvi, called from the place in which he was
born, Sassoferrato,[78] and whom we shall notice further when we speak
of Carlo Dolci, and his very devotional pictures. This artist excelled
Dolci in the beauty of his Madonnas, but yielded to him in the fineness
of his pencil. Their style was dissimilar, Salvi having formed himself
on other models; he first studied in his native place under Tarquinio,
his father,[79] then in Rome and afterwards in Naples; it is not known
precisely under what masters, except that in his MS. Memoirs we read of
one Domenico. The period in which Salvi studied corresponds in a
remarkable manner with the time in which Domenichino was employed in
Naples, and his manner of painting shews that he adopted the style of
that master, though not exclusively. I have seen in the possession of
his heirs many copies from the first masters, which he executed for his
own pleasure. I observed several of Albano, Guido, Barocci, Raffaello,
reduced to a small size, and painted, as one may say, all in one breath.
There are also some landscapes of his composition, and a vast number of
sacred portraits; several of S. John the Baptist, but more than all of
the Madonna. Though not possessing the ideal beauty of the Greeks, he
has yet a style of countenance peculiarly appropriate to the Virgin, in
which an air of humility predominates, and the simplicity of the dress
and the attire of the head corresponds with the expression of the
features, without at the same time lessening the dignity of her
character. He painted with a flowing pencil, was varied in his
colouring, had a fine relief and chiaroscuro; but in his local tints he
was somewhat hard. He delighted most in designing heads with a part of
the bust, which frequently occur in collections; his portraits are very
often of the size of life, and of that size, or larger, is a Madonna, by
him, with the infant Christ, in the Casali palace at Rome. The picture
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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