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
communicated to the artist by Giorgio Anselmi, a celebrated scholar, whose
own daughter belonged to the same establishment. But we must not allow
ourselves to proceed further in our notice of a dissertation, assuredly one
of the most profound and ingenious that we ever recollect to have read. The
pictures are about to be engraved by the hand of Signor Rosaspina, after
those of S. Giovanni, in which the learned Abate Mazza is at present so
laudably engaged, no less to the advantage of the arts than of his own
reputation.
The vast undertaking, so finely executed by Coreggio, at S. Paolo, obtained
for him so high a name, that the Padri Cassinensi invited him to engage in
the equally extensive one of San Giovanni, entered upon in 1520,[20] and
completed in 1524, as we find mentioned in the books. There, also, in
addition to several minor works, he decorated the tribune, which being
afterwards removed, in order to extend the choir, and rebuilt, was
repainted, as we shall notice elsewhere, by Aretusi. On the demolition of
the tribune, the picture of the Incoronation of the Virgin, the leading
subject in the fresco, was saved, and is now exhibited in the royal
library; and various heads of angels, which in like manner escaped the same
destruction, are preserved in the Palazzo Rondanini at Rome. There are,
now, in the church of San Giovanni, two pictures in oil, placed opposite to
one another, in one of the chapels; one, a Christ taken from the Cross; the
other, the Martyrdom of St. Placidus, both painted on canvass made for the
purpose, like some of the pictures of Mantegna. On the exterior of one of
the other chapels is a figure of St. John the Evangelist, executed in the
noblest manner. And, finally, there is the grand cupola, where the artist
represented the Ascension of Jesus to his Father; the apostles looking on
in mingled veneration and surprise; a production in which, whether we
regard the proportion, and the shortening of the figures, the naked parts,
or the draperies, or gaze upon it as a whole, we must alike confess that it
was an unexampled specimen of the art, in its kind; the terrific Judgment
of Michelangiolo,[21] not having then assumed its place in the Vatican.
Footnote 20: Tiraboschi was unable to discover any certain
work from the hand of Antonio, between the years 17 and 20,
of the same age. This gave rise to the assertion of Vasari's
annotator, that he remained in Rome in quality of
Raffaello's pupil during this interval, and on his master's
death, in 1520, returned to Lombardy. Such a supposition
becomes utterly void, after the above epochs adduced by us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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