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
We next come to Marco Basaiti, sprung from a Greek family in the Friuli,
and a rival also of Giovanni; but more successful than Carpaccio. The
church of San Giobbe, here mentioned for the third time, possesses his
picture of Christ praying in the Garden, painted in 1510. It is now a
little defaced, but has been highly extolled by Ridolfi and others, who
beheld it in a more perfect condition. Above all his productions,
however, the Vocation of San Pietro to the Apostleship, in the church of
the Certosa, is the most celebrated; a piece, of which there is seen a
duplicate in the imperial gallery at Vienna. It is certainly one of the
most beautiful pictures of that age; and most generally there is no kind
of merit in Gian Bellini, in which Basaiti does not either equal, or
very closely approach him. Indeed he appears to exhibit even a freer
genius, a more happy composition, and a more skilful art in uniting the
grounds of his pictures with the figures. These are beautiful, and for
the most part incline to the free style; their look is full of fire; the
tints of the fleshy parts of a rosy glow; the middle tints inclining
sometimes to paleness, but not without grace. Though not a native, he
resided a long period at Venice, which contains a good number of his
works, a few of which are in the ancient taste, but the most part
bordering upon the modern. His native place of Friuli possesses no other
specimen besides a Christ taken from the Cross, in the monastery of
Sesto, consisting of large figures, with a fine group in the background
of the picture, and with a landscape full of nature. In several parts it
is defaced by age; but a true connoisseur will still, perhaps, prefer it
to the others, for being free from the retouches of modern art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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