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
Gio. Francesco Penni, or as he is called, il Fattore, came to Naples
some time after Polidoro, but soon afterwards fell sick, and died in the
year 1528. He contributed in two different ways to the advancement of
the school of Naples. In the first place he left there the great copy of
the Transfiguration of Raffaello, which he had painted in Rome in
conjunction with Perino, and which was afterwards placed in S. Spirito
degl'Incurabili, and served as a study to Lama, and the best painters,
until, with other select pictures and sculptures at Naples, it was
purchased and removed by the viceroy Don Pietro Antonio of Aragon.
Secondly, he left there a scholar of the name of Lionardo, commonly
called il Pistoja, from the place of his birth; an excellent colourist,
but not a very correct designer. We noticed him among the assistants of
Raffaello, and more at length among the artists of the Florentine state,
where we find some of his pictures, as in Volterra and elsewhere. After
he had lost his friend Penni in Naples, he established himself there for
the remainder of his days, where he received sufficient encouragement
from the nobility of that city, and painted less for the churches than
for private individuals. He chiefly excelled in portrait.
Pistoja is said to have been one of the masters of Francesco Curia, a
painter, who, though somewhat of a mannerist in the style of Vasari and
Zucchero, is yet commended for the noble and agreeable style of his
composition, for his beautiful countenances, and natural colouring.
These qualities are singularly conspicuous in a Circumcision painted for
the church della Pietà, esteemed by Ribera, Giordano, and Solimene, one
of the first pictures in Naples. He left in Ippolito Borghese an
accomplished imitator, who was absent a long time from his native
country, where few of his works remain, but those are highly prized. He
was in the year 1620 in Perugia, as Morelli relates in his description
of the pictures and statues of that city, and painted an Assumption of
the Virgin, which was placed in S. Lorenzo.
There were two Neapolitans who were scholars and assistants of Perino
del Vaga in Rome; Gio. Corso, initiated in the art by Amato, or as
others assert by Polidoro; and Gianfilippo Criscuolo, instructed a long
time by Salerno. There are few remains of Corso in Naples, except such
as are retouched; nor is any piece so much extolled as a Christ with a
Cross painted for the church of S. Lorenzo. Criscuolo in the short time
he was at Rome, diligently copied Raffaello, and was greatly attached to
his school. He followed, however, his own genius, which was reserved and
timid, and formed for himself rather a severe manner; a circumstance to
his honour, at a time when the contours were overcharged and the
correctness of Raffaello was neglected. He is also highly commended as
an instructor.
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