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
also his three sons, Camillo, Giulio Cesare, and Carlo Antonio, from which
last sprung Ercole the younger; all masters of young Milanese artists, and
of whom it will be our business to treat in succession.
Camillo is the only one of the three who was known to Lomazzo, who
describes him as an artist distinguished both for his design and his
colouring. He received his first instructions from his father, and often
displays a resemblance in his heads, and in the distribution of his tints;
though, where he painted with care, he both warmed and broke them, as well
as employed the middle colours, in a superior manner. He studied other
schools, and if we are to believe some of his biographers, he practised at
Rome from the models of Raffaello and Michelangiolo, besides being
passionately devoted to the heads of Parmigianino, an imitation of which is
perceptible in all his works. He possessed wonderful facility both in
conception and execution; added to nature, beauty, and spirit, always
attractive to the eye, though they do not always satisfy the judgment. Nor
is this surprising, as he early threw off the reign of paternal
instruction, and executed works enough to have employed ten artists, at
Bologna, at Ravenna, Reggio, Piacenza, Pavia, and Genoa. He was by many
called the Vasari, and the Zuccaro of Lombardy; although to say truth, he
surpasses them in sweetness of style and of colours. He was particularly
engaged at Milan, a city which boasts some of his best productions, by
which he obtained reputation there; and many of his worst, with which he
satisfied those who valued his name. Of his earliest works there, and the
most free from mannerism, are those adorning the exterior of the organ at
the Metropolitana, along with various mysteries of our Lady, and two
histories of David playing upon his harp; all described very minutely by
Malvasia. But he produced nothing in Milan equal to his Judgment at S.
Procol di Reggio, esteemed one of the finest specimens of fresco in all
Lombardy; and to his S. Rocco among the sick and dying of the plague, a
picture that intimidated Annibal Caracci, when he had to paint a companion
for it, (see Malvasia, p. 466). The pictures produced by Camillo, in the
cathedral of Piacenza, where the Duke of Parma had placed him in
competition with Lodovico Caracci, whose genius was then mature, are well
and carefully executed. He there represented our Lady crowned Queen of the
Universe by the Almighty, surrounded with a very full choir of Angels, in
whose forms he displayed the most finished beauty. It was the part of
Lodovico to represent other angels around; and opposite to the Coronation
the _Padri del Limbo_. The first occupied the most distinguished place in
the tribune; though both then and now he was esteemed by spectators the
least worthy of the two. However advantageously he there appears, and
entitled to the applause of Girupeno and other historians, as well as
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