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 — John Shaqi
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 passions, which is entirely the work of expression, the delight
which proceeds from poetical conceptions, or from graceful episodes, may
be said to speak for themselves, nor have any occasion to be pointed out
by us.
Other things might contribute to the beauty of his works, as unity,
sublimity, costume, and erudition; for which it is sufficient to refer
to those delightful poetical pieces, with which he adorned the gallery
of Leo X., and which were engraved by Lanfranco and Badalocchi, and are
called the Bible of Raffaello. In the Return of Jacob, who does not
immediately discover, in the number and variety of domestic animals, the
multitude of servants, and the women carrying with them their children,
a patriarchal family migrating from a long possessed abode into a new
territory? In the Creation of the World, where the Deity stretches out
his arms, and with one hand calls forth the sun and with the other the
moon, do we not see a grandeur, which, with the simplest expression,
awakes in us the most sublime ideas? And in the Adoration of the Golden
Calf, how could he better have represented the idolatrous ceremony, and
its departure from true religion, than by depicting the people as
carried away by an insane joy, and mad with fanaticism? In point of
erudition it is sufficient to notice the Triumph of David, which Taja
describes and compares with the ancient bassirelievi, and is inclined to
believe that there is not any thing in marble that excels the art and
skill of this picture. I am aware that on another occasion he has not
been exempted from blame, as when he repeated the figure of S. Peter out
of prison, which hurts the unity of the subject; and in assigning to
Apollo and to the muses instruments not proper to antiquity. Yet it is
the glory of Raffaello to have introduced into his pictures numberless
circumstances unknown to his predecessors, and to have left little to be
added by his successors.
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