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
After the above named artists a crowd of contemporaries present
themselves, more particularly those who had the direction of the works
under Gregory XIII. The Sala de' Duchi was entrusted to Lorenzino of
Bologna, who was invited to Rome from his native city, where he enjoyed
the reputation of an excellent painter, and deservedly so, as we shall
see in his place. He undertook the decoration of the gallery of the
Vatican, which, from the vast size of that building, forms a boundless
field of art. Niccolò Circignani, or delle Pomarance, already mentioned
in the first book, distributed the work amongst a number of young
artists, who there painted historical subjects, landscapes, and
arabesques. The Pope was desirous that the walls also should serve the
cause of science, and ordered the compartments to be adorned with
geographical delineations of ancient and modern Italy, a task which was
assigned to Padre Ignazio Danti, a Domenican, a mathematician and
geographer of his court, and who was afterwards promoted to the
bishopric of Alatri. Ignazio was born in Perugia, of a family devoted to
the fine arts, and had two brothers, painters; Girolamo, of whom there
remain some works in S. Pietro, on the model of Vasari; and Vincenzio,
who in Rome assisted Ignazio, and there died, and was a good fresco
painter. Another grand work was also undertaken about this time, which
was the continuation of the gallery of Raffaello, in an arm of the
building contiguous to it, where, in conformity to the plan of
Raffaello, it was intended to paint four subjects in every arcade, all
from the New Testament. Roncelli, the scholar of Circignano, our notice
of whom we shall reserve to a subsequent epoch, was charged with the
execution of this plan, but was himself subject to the direction of
Padre Danti, experience having shewn that the entire abandonment of a
design to the direction of practical artists is injurious to its
execution, as there are few that, in the choice of inferior artists, are
not governed by influence, avarice, or jealousy. The selection,
therefore, was reserved to Danti, who to an excellent practical
knowledge of the art of design, united moral qualities that insured
success: and under his direction the whole work was regulated and
conducted in such a manner, that the spirit of Raffaello seemed to be
resuscitated in the precincts of the Vatican. But the hand was no longer
the same, and the imbecility which was apparent in the new productions,
when compared with the old, betrayed the decline of the art, though we
occasionally meet with subjects by Tempesti, Raffaellino da Reggio, the
younger Palma, and Girolamo Massei, which reflect a ray of honour on the
age.
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