The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 5 (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. 5 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Lanzi, Luigi
Painting -- Italy -- History
Paul in point of vigour, but containing such variety of
images, and such deathly terror, as not to be surpassed in tragic interest
by any thing from the same school. He had the choice of establishing
himself as court-painter at Mantua, an office he rejected, preferring to
take a wife with a handsome dowry at Bologna. This step was a loss,
however, to the art, as mentioned by Malvasia; since from that period
finding himself rich, and occupied with family cares, he painted little,
and with as little study, leaving his final labours by no means equal to
the preceding. His son Carlo applied still less than his father to the
profession, though he gave proofs in several works exhibited in public,
that in time he would have equalled his father. Lorenzo educated few other
pupils, but he was highly esteemed for his profound knowledge, and for his
method of communicating it, at once easy and precise, resting upon few but
comprehensive maxims.
Giacomo Cavedone was from Sassuolo, and hence included among the artists of
the Modenese state by Tiraboschi, in whose work we may read the origin of
his career. His genius was more limited, his spirit less animated, than
those of the preceding; but being assisted by the Caracci in the right
path, he attained to equal, and even greater celebrity. Leaving the
intricacies of the art to the more enterprising, he fixed upon attitudes
comparatively easy and devoid of foreshortening, gentle expressions
distinct from the stronger passions, correct design in his figures, and
more particularly in the hands and feet. Nature had endued him with
promptness and facility; so that on occasion of designing models, or
copying pictures, he with rare exactness took the substance of the subject,
and afterwards reduced the whole by a more easy method in his own
peculiarly resolute and graceful touch, in which he has always remained
original. He was equally novel in his frescos; employing few tints, but so
attractive, that Guido was induced to make him his pupil, and retained him
at Rome as his assistant. Another striking characteristic was his strength
of colouring, which he acquired from those Venetians themselves, who shone
the masters of his masters. Here he attained to such excellence, that
Albani, when asked whether there were any pictures of Titian's at Bologna,
replied, there were not; but we may substitute the two at S. Paolo by
Cavedone (a Nativity and an Epiphany) which look like Titian's, and are
executed with a bolder hand. One of his most distinguished productions at
Bologna is the S. Alò at the Mendicanti, in which Girupeno discovers,
besides its fine design, a Titianesque taste that excites astonishment; and
a French tourist entitles it a most admirable work, such as might be fairly
attributed to the Caracci. The mistake indeed has occurred to persons of
first rate tact, most frequently at Imola, on contemplating the beautiful
picture of St. Stephen at that church; and yet more out of Italy, in regard
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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