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
esteemed his masterpieces; but these he altered according to his new
method, and they were thenceforth regarded among his most feeble
performances. In his half-figures the same diversity of manner is
observable; and those executed in the first, such as his Miracle of the
Manna, in the Spada palace, with others at Rome, are justly held in esteem.
The same may be said of his landscapes, which, in many galleries, are
attributed to the Caracci; but the taste in the rapidity of touch, very
original and remarkable in Mastelletta, is sufficient to distinguish them.
Annibal was so well pleased with these pictures for galleries, that, having
his company at Rome, he advised him to settle there and confine himself to
similar labours; advice by no means pleasing to Donducci. But he a good
deal frequented the studio of Tassi, and these artists mutually assisted
each other, freely communicating between themselves what they knew. Soon
after he returned to Bologna, and resumed his more extensive works; but met
with serious disappointments, such as to induce him to enter as a friar,
first among the Conventuals, next with the canons of S. Salvatore. He
educated no pupils of merit, except that one Domenico Mengucci, of Pesaro,
resembled Mastelletta a good deal in his landscape; an artist better known
at Bologna than in his native place.
Footnote 41: A pail or bucket maker.
Besides the forementioned disciples of the Caracci academy, several others
are entitled to consideration; such as Schedone and more names recorded in
the schools already described, with a few yet left to mention in those of
which we have to treat. Many names will also find a place among the
Bolognese painters of landscape, or those of perspective. A few others, who
devoted themselves to figures, have been scarcely alluded to by Malvasia,
either because then living, or not so distinguished as some of the
preceding; nevertheless they are not despicable, for to hold a second or
third rank, where Domenichino and Guido are the foremost, is a degree of
honour not to be regretted. One of these is Francesco Cavazzone, a writer
too on the art, of whom the Canon Crespi subsequently collected very ample
notices, in particular extolling a Magdalen kneeling at the feet of the
Redeemer, a truly imposing picture, that ornamented the church of that
saint in via S. Donato. Of much the same degree of merit was Vincenzio
Ansaloni, who gave only two altar-pieces to the public, but sufficient to
establish his title to the character of a great artist. Giacomo Lippi,
called also Giacomone da Budrio, was another distinguished artist, of
universal genius, in whose fresco histories at the portico of the Nunziata
we trace the pupil of Lodovico, not very select, but of prompt and
practised hand. Some pictures in fresco too by Piero Pancotto, at S.
Colombano, gave rise to feelings of disgust from the ridicule attempted to
be cast on his own parish priest, caricatured by him in the features of a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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