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
studying it at that time, nor did he then long remain in Florence, for,
as Vasari states, he was soon obliged to return to his native place, in
consequence of the death of his parents.[31] In 1505 we find him in
Perugia: and to this year belongs the chapel of S. Severo, and the
Crucifixion, which was severed from the wall, and preserved by the Padri
Camaldolensi. From these works, which are all in fresco, we may
ascertain the style which he acquired in Florence; and I think we may
assert, that it was not anatomical, no traces of it being visible in the
body of the Redeemer, which was an opportunity well adapted for the
exhibition of it. Nor was it the study of the beautiful, of which he had
previously exhibited such delightful specimens; nor that of expression,
as there were not to be found in Florence, heads more expressive and
lovely than those he had painted. But after his visit to Florence, we
find his colouring more delicate, and his grouping and the
foreshortening of his figures improved; whether or not he owed it to the
example of Da Vinci or Bonarruoti, or both together, or to some of the
older masters. He afterwards repaired to Florence, but soon quitted it
again, in order to paint in the church of S. Francis, in Perugia, a dead
Christ entombed, the cartoon of which he had designed at Florence; and
which picture was first placed in the church of S. Francis, was
afterwards, in the pontificate of Paul V., transferred to Rome, and is
now in the Borghese palace. After this he returned again to Florence,
and remained there until his departure for Rome, at the end of the year
1508. In this interval, more particularly, he executed the works which
are said to be in his second style, though it is a very delicate matter
to attempt to point them out. Vasari assigns to this period the Holy
Family in the Rinuccini gallery, and yet it bears the date of 1506. Of
this second style is undoubtedly the picture of the Madonna and the
infant Christ and S. John, in a beautiful landscape, with ruins in the
distance, which is in the gallery of the Grand Duke, and others, some of
which are to be found in foreign countries. His pictures of this period
are composed in the more usual style of a Madonna, accompanied by
saints, like the picture of the Pitti palace, formerly at Pescia, and
that of S. Fiorenzo in Perugia, which passed into England. The
attitudes, however, the air of the heads, and smaller features of
composition, are beyond a common style. The dead Christ above mentioned,
is in a more novel and superior style. Vasari calls it a most divine
picture; the figures are not numerous; but each fulfils perfectly the
part assigned to it; the subject is most affecting; the heads are
remarkably beautiful, and the earliest of the kind in the restoration of
art, while the expression of profound sorrow and extreme anguish does
not divest them of their beauty. After finishing this work, Raphael was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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