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
at La Pietà, mentioned by Guarienti. Two others, named Maffei, of
Vicenza, and Zanimberti, of Brescia, will come under consideration in
their respective states.
Antonio Vassilacchi, called Aliense, a native of the island of Milo,
inherited from the line climate of Greece a genius adapted to confer
honour upon the arts, and particularly on works of a vast and
imaginative character. Paul Veronese, struck with his first efforts,
banished him, with a feeling of jealousy, from his studio, advising him
at the same time to confine himself to small pictures. Aliense observing
Paul engaged in reviving the examples of Titian, renewed as far as lay
in his power those of Tintoretto. He studied casts taken from the
antique, designing from them both day and night; he exercised himself in
acquiring a knowledge of the human frame, modelled in wax, copied
Tintoretto with the utmost assiduity, and, as if wholly to forget what
he had learnt from Paul, he sold the designs made at his school. Yet he
could not so far divest himself of them, but that in his earliest
productions, remaining at the church of Le Vergini, he displayed the
manner of Paul. He has been accused by historians of having abandoned
this style for one less adapted to his genius; and moreover of having
been misled by the innovations of the mannerists. Sometimes, however, he
painted with extreme care, as in his Epiphany, for the Council of Ten,
though in general he abused the facility of his genius, without fear of
risking his credit, inasmuch as his rivals Palma and Corona pursued the
same plan. In order better to oppose his great enemy Vittoria, he
attached himself to another architect, who possessed much influence,
named Girolamo Campagna, the disciple of Sansovino; and he moreover
enjoyed the favour of Tintoretto. In this manner Aliense obtained many
commissions, both for the public palace and the Venetian churches,
besides being engaged in many works for other cities, more especially
for Perugia, at S. Pietro, all upon a magnificent scale; yet without
acquiring that degree of estimation which the felicity of his genius
deserved. He was assisted by Tommaso Dolobella, of Belluno, a good
practitioner, and well received in Poland, where he long continued in
the service of Sigismond III. In his Life of Aliense, Ridolfi makes
mention also of Pietro Mera, a Fleming, whose portrait Aliense painted,
as being his friend; but neither from history, nor from his own style,
can we gather that he was Aliense's disciple. He resided, and employed
himself much in Venice, at SS. Giovanni and Paolo, at La Madonna dell'
Orto, and elsewhere: while the judgment pronounced upon him by Zanetti
is, that he appeared to have greatly attached himself to the Venetian
artists, and to have derived sufficient profit.
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