The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 4 (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. 4 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Lanzi, Luigi
Painting -- Italy -- History
The Cav. Antonio Campi was instructed by his brother in architecture and
painting, in the former of which he employed himself more than Giulio. This
was useful to him in the distribution of his large works, where he often
introduced perspective views of great beauty, and displayed great skill in
foreshortening. A fine specimen of his powers is to be seen in the sacristy
of S. Pietro, with that beautiful colonnade, above which appears the
chariot of Elias in the distance. Antonio was also a modeller, an engraver,
and the historian of his native state, whose annals, enriched with many of
his copper-plates, he published in 1585. In the Campi family, therefore, he
will be found to occupy the same place as Agostino among the Caracci, an
artist of great versatility, conversant with polite letters. He was well
known and appreciated by Agostino, who engraved one of his most beautiful
productions, the Apostle of the Gentiles in the act of raising a person
from the dead. It is placed at S. Paolo in Milan, a noble church, where all
the Campi, in the same manner as at S. Sigismondo, are seen in competition
with each other. Antonio there appears to great advantage, no less in the
forementioned picture than in that of the Nativity, though the frescos
adorning the chapels, ascribed to him, are deficient in accuracy. Thus he
also produced works of unequal merit at S. Sigismondo, as if he wished to
shew that he knew more than he was ambitious of expressing. His most
familiar model, as is remarked also by Lomazzo, was Coreggio, and the
feature that he most aimed at expressing was that of grace. To this he
often attained in point of colouring, but was less happy in design, where,
owing to his study of elegance, he at times becomes disproportionately
thin, and at others, in order to display his power, he exhibits a
foreshortening somewhat out of place. He is still more mannered in his more
robust subjects, and occasionally borders upon heaviness and vulgarity,
into which his imitation of Coreggio's grandeur, more difficult, perhaps,
than his grace, doubtless betrayed him. There are many of these exceptions,
however, along with his incorrectness of design, so often discernible,
which are to be attributed to his numerous assistants, employed in these
vast undertakings. But this will not apply to his over-grouping, which is
so remarkable in some of his compositions, nor to the introduction of
caricatures into his holy histories, which is a sort of jesting out of
season. In a word his genius was vast, spirited, resolute, but often in
want of the rein; and in this respect, and generally in what relates to
pictorial learning, we should do wrong to put him in competition with
Lodovico Caracci.
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