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
The Roman School has recently had to regret the loss of two accomplished
masters; Domenico Corvi of Viterbo, and Giuseppe Cades of Rome, who
although younger than Corvi, and for some years his scholar, died before
him. In my notice of them, I shall begin with the master who has been
honoured and eulogized more than once in the respectable _Memorie delle
belle Arti_, as well as his scholar, and also some other disciples; as
there was not in Rome in the latter times any school more productive in
talent. He was truly an accomplished artist, and there were few to
compare with him in anatomy, perspective, and design; and from Mancini
his instructor, he acquired something of the style of the Caracci.
Hence, his academy drawings are highly prized, and I may say, more
sought after than his pictures, which indeed want that fascination of
grace and colour which attracts the admiration alike of the learned and
the vulgar. He maintained an universal delicacy of colour, and was
accustomed to defend the practice by asserting, with what justice I
cannot say, that pictures painted in that manner were less liable to
become black. His most esteemed works are his night pieces, as the Birth
of our Saviour in the church of the Osservanti at Macerata, which is
perhaps the summit of his efforts. Some amateurs went thither express
towards the close of day; a lofty window opposite favoured the illusion
of the perspective of the picture; and Corvi, who in other pictures is
inferior to Gherardo delle Notti, viewed in this manner, here excels
him, by an originality of perspective and general effect. He worked much
both for his own countrymen and foreigners, besides the pictures which
he kept ready by him, to supply the daily calls of purchasers, and many
of which are still on sale in the house of his widow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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