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
scholar of Andrea, already deceased before Allegri had attained his twelfth
year.
Still more celebrated than the preceding were the names of Gianfrancesco
Carotto and Francesco Monsignori, of Verona. Such was the progress made by
the former, that Andrea was in the habit of sending forth his labours as
the work of his own hand. He was celebrated for his portraits; and for his
composition, equally excellent in large as in small pieces; and he was
employed by the Visconti, at Milan, as well as in the court of Monferrato,
and to a still greater extent in his native place. Although an artist who
flourished at so early a period, in a few of his pictures he might be
pronounced more great and harmonious than Andrea himself; as we may gather
from his fine altar-piece of S. Fermo, at Verona, and from that of his
_Angioli_, at Santa Eufemia, whose side pictures represent two virgins,
very manifestly imitated from Raffaello. He is not to be confounded with
Giovanni Carotto, his brother and his pupil, and very greatly inferior to
him. Francesco Monsignori ought not to be referred to Verona, but to
Mantua, where he established himself, honoured by the Marchese Francesco
with his confidence, and remunerated in the most liberal manner. If this
artist, also, does not exhibit the beautiful forms, and the purity of
design so remarkable in the works of his master, he approaches nearer to
the modern taste; his contours more full, his drapery less trite, and his
softness more finely studied. In his drawings of animals, he was also
considered the Zeuxis of his age; insomuch that he succeeded in imposing
upon a real dog with a copy of the animal. In perspective he was a master;
and in the refectory of the Franciscans, there is a picture of our Lord
amidst the apostles, exhibiting an architecture, which, however much
retouched, does not fail to produce great effect. In the pulpit of the same
church is also a S. Bernardino, with a S. Lodovico, one of his most
beautiful pieces; and elsewhere altar-grades, with figures which appear
like miniature. He had a brother of the name of Girolamo, of the order of
S. Domenico, also an excellent artist. The Last Supper, to be seen in the
grand library of S. Benedetto, copied from that of Leonardo, in Milan, is
from his hand. By many it is esteemed the best copy of that miracle of art,
which now remains to us. I have before treated of several of Andrea's
scholars, natives of Vicenza; and another of Cremona, I shall have to
mention in due time. Yet the entire series of this school will not be
completed with these names, as there are specimens of many unknown artists
executed in fresco, interspersed throughout different places in Mantua.
They are for the most part to be met with on the façades of buildings, and
in the churches; while in several of the galleries we may observe pictures
in oil, which appear to exhibit more of the defects than of the excellences
of a Mantegna.
MANTUAN SCHOOL.
EPOCH II.
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