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
[Footnote 115: I find in Messina, Gio. Fulco, who imbibed the principles
of the art under the Cav. Massimo; a correct designer, a lively and
graceful painter, particularly of children, excepting a somewhat too
great fleshiness, and a trace of mannerism. Many of his works in his
native country were destroyed by an earthquake. Some remain at the
Nunziata de' Teatini, where in the chapel of the Crucifix are his
frescos, and a picture by him in oil of the Nativity of the Virgin.]
[Footnote 116: Gio. Batista Durand, of Burgundy, was established in
Messina. He was the scholar of Domenichino, and was always attached to
his manner. Of his larger works we find only a S. Cecilia in the convent
of that saint, as he was generally occupied in painting portraits. He
had a daughter called Flavia, the wife of Filippo Giannetti, skilled in
portraits, and an excellent copyist.]
[Footnote 117: Domenico Maroli, Onofrio Gabriello, and Agostino Scilla,
were the three painters of Messina who did him the most honour, although
from being engaged in the revolutions of 1674 and 1676, the first lost
his life, and the other two were long exiles from their country. Maroli
did not adopt the style of Barbalunga exclusively, but having made a
voyage to Venice, and there studied the works of the best Venetian
artists, and particularly of Paolo, he returned with many of the
excellences of that great master, brilliant flesh tints, a beautiful air
in his heads, and a fine style in his drawings of women, a talent which
he abused as much or more than Liberi. To this moral vice he added a
professional one, which was painting sometimes on the _imprimiture_, and
generally with little colour; whence his works, which were extolled and
sought after when new, became, when old, neglected, like those dark
paintings of the Venetian School, which we have mentioned. Messina has
many of them: the Martyrdom of S. Placido at the Suore di S. Paolo, the
Nativity of the Virgin in the church della Grotta, and some others. In
Venice there must also be remaining in private collections, some of his
paintings of animals in the style of Bassano, as we have before
mentioned. Onofrio Gabriello was for six years with Barbalunga, and for
some further time with Poussin, and then with Cortona in Rome, until
passing another nine years in Venice with Maroli, he brought back with
him to Messina that master's vicious method of colour, but not his
style. In the latter he aimed at originality, exhibiting much lightness,
grace, and fancy, in the accessory parts, and in ribbons, jewels, and
lace, in which he particularly excelled. He left many pictures in
Messina, in the church of S. Francesco di Paola: many also in Padua, in
the _Guida_ of which city various pictures by him are enumerated,
without mentioning his cabinet pictures and portraits in private
collections. I have seen several in possession of the noble and learned
Sig. Co. Antonio Maria Borromeo; amongst which is a family piece with a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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