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
Federigo was afterwards invited to Madrid by Philip II.; but that
monarch not being satisfied with his works, they were effaced, and their
places supplied by Tibaldi, and he himself, with an adequate pension,
was sent back to Italy. He undertook another journey late in life,
visiting the principal cities of Italy, and leaving specimens of his art
in every place where he was called to exercise his talents. One of the
best of these is an Assumption of the Virgin, in an Oratory of Rimino,
on which he inscribed his name, and the Death of the Virgin, at S. Maria
_in Acumine_, with some figures of the Apostles, more finished than
usual with him. A simple and graceful style is observable in his
Presepio, in the cathedral of Foligno, and in two pictures from the life
of the Virgin, in a chapel of Loreto, painted for the Duke of Urbino.
The Cistercian monks, at Milan, possess two large pictures in their
library on the Miracle della Neve, with a numerous assemblage of
figures, the countenances in his usual lively manner, the colouring
varied and well preserved. In the Borromei college, in Pavia, is a
saloon painted in fresco, with subjects from the life of S. Carlo. The
most admired of these is the saint at prayer in his retirement; the
other pieces, the Consistory in which was his chapel, and the Plague of
Milan, would be much better, if the figures were fewer. He returned to
Venice, where his great picture remained, and which had not been so much
injured by time, as by a sarcasm of Boschini on certain sugar
[_Zucchero_] of very poor quality lately imported into Venice, in
consequence of which he retouched his work, and wrote on it, by way of a
memorial, _Federicus Zuccarus f. an. sal. 1582, perfecit an. 1603_. It
is one of his best works, copious, and, agreeably to Zanetti, beautiful
and well sustained. He then went to Turin, where he painted a S. Paul,
for the Jesuits, and began to ornament a gallery for Charles Emanuel,
Duke of Savoy; and it was in that city that he first published _La idea
de' Pittori, Scultori, e Architetti_, which he dedicated to the Duke. He
afterwards returned into Lombardy, where he composed two other works,
the one intitled _La Dimora di Parma del Sig. Cav. Federigo Zuccaro_:
the other, _Il Passaggio per Italia colla dimora di Parma del Sig. Cav.
Federigo Zuccaro_, both printed in Bologna, in 1608. In the following
year, on his return to his native place, he fell sick in Ancona, where
he died. Baglione admired the versatility of talent in this artist,
which extended to sculpture and architecture; but more than all he
admired his good fortune, in which he exceeded all his contemporaries.
This distinction he owed in a great measure to his personal qualities,
to his noble presence, his encouragement of letters, his quality of
attaching persons to him, and his liberality, which led him to expend in
a generous manner the large sums he derived from his works.
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