The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 3 (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. 3 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Lanzi, Luigi
Painting -- Italy -- History
Nativity of our Lord, at SS. Faustino and Giovita, is his only picture
in oil remaining at his native place in public; it is very graceful,
displaying certain traits of the Raffaello manner. His picture of a
Pietà, at San Pietro, in Cremona, is also highly esteemed by professors,
one among whom, who had designed a good deal from the works of
Lattanzio, declared to me that he had never witnessed any other so
exquisite in point of design, nor coloured with so much delicacy,
clearness, and taste and softness of tints. Yet this great artist only
reached his thirty-second year, leaving in Giovita, a Brescian artist,
(likewise called Brescianino) an excellent disciple, particularly of
works in fresco.
Geronimo Savoldo, sprung of a noble family in Brescia, flourished also
about 1540, and is ranked by Paolo Pino among the best artists of his
age. I know not where he acquired the rudiments of his art; but from a
specimen which I saw at Brescia, he must have possessed great accuracy
and delicacy of hand. Upon transferring his residence to Venice, he is
known to have become one of the most formidable of Titian's rivals; not,
indeed, in works of a large scale, but in smaller pieces conducted with
an exquisite degree of care, which may, in a manner, be said to have
been his chief characteristic. With such as these he beguiled his time,
presenting them gratuitously as ornaments for churches. He produced
others for private persons, now extremely rare and valuable, in
different collections.
Zanetti, in his description of his little _Presepio_, (Christ in the
manger), recently retouched, which is to be seen at San Giobbe, observes
that the tint of his pictures is truly beautiful, and the whole
composition conducted with a singular degree of care. In Venice, says
Ridolfi, he is known by the name of Girolamo Bresciano, neither Romanino
nor Muziano having employed themselves there, with whom he might
possibly have been confounded. There he resided for many years, and
terminated his days at the same place. His happiest production, though
unknown to the historian, was placed in the Altar-Maggiore, of the Padri
Predicatori, at Pesaro, a noble piece, which produces a striking
impression upon the eye. Our Lord is seen placed on high, seated upon a
cloud, which appears truly illuminated by the sun, and on the foreground
are represented four saints, drawn with a force of colouring that seems
to bring them as near to the eye, as the soft colour of the perspective
and of the upper part of the picture throws its objects into the
distance. A small, but beautiful piece, in excellent preservation, is
also seen in the Royal Gallery of Florence, exhibiting the
Transfiguration of our Lord, placed there along with specimens of other
Venetian artists, by the Cavalier Puccini, one who has conferred so many
obligations upon that princely collection of art.
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