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
From his school came Francesco Imparato, who was afterwards taught by
Titian, and so far emulated his style, that a S. Peter Martyr by him in
the church of that saint in Naples was praised by Caracciolo as the best
picture which had then been seen in that city. We must not confound this
Francesco with Girolamo Imparato, his son, who flourished after the end
of the sixteenth century, and enjoyed a reputation greater than he
perhaps merited. He too was a follower of the Venetian, and afterwards
of the Lombard style, and he travelled to improve himself in colouring,
the fruits of which were seen in the picture of the Rosario at S.
Tommaso d'Aquino, and in others of his works. The Cav. Stanzioni, who
knew him, and was his competitor, considered him inferior to his father
in talent, and describes him as vain and ostentatious.
To these painters of the school of Raffaello, there succeeded in Naples
two followers of Michelangiolo, whom we have before noticed. The first
of these was Vasari, who was called thither in 1544, to paint the
refectory of the P. P. Olivetani, and was afterwards charged with many
commissions in Naples and in Rome. By the aid of architecture, in which
he excelled more than in painting, he converted that edifice, which was
in what is commonly called the Gothic style, to a better form; altered
the vault, and ornamented it with modern stuccos, which were the first
seen in Naples, and painted there a considerable number of subjects,
with that rapidity and mediocrity that characterize the greater part of
his works. He remained there for the space of a year, and of the
services he rendered to the city, we may judge from the following
passage in his life. "It is extraordinary," he says, "that in so large
and noble a city, there should have been found no masters after Giotto,
to have executed any work of celebrity, although some works by Perugino
and by Raffaello had been introduced. On these grounds I have
endeavoured, to the best of my humble talents, to awaken the genius of
that country to a spirit of emulation, and to the accomplishment of some
great and honourable work; and from these my labours, or from some other
cause, we now see many beautiful works in stucco and painting, in
addition to the before mentioned pictures." It is not easy to conjecture
why Vasari should here overlook many eminent painters, and even Andrea
da Salerno himself, so illustrious an artist, and whose name would have
conferred a greater honour on his book, than it could possibly have
derived from it. Whether self love prompted him to pass over that
painter and other Neapolitan artists, in the hope that he should himself
be considered the restorer of taste in Naples; or whether it was the
consequence of the dispute which existed at that time between him and
the painters of Naples; or whether, as I observed in my preface, it
sometimes happens in this art, that a picture which delights one person,
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