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
Colonna alone seemed born to associate with him, as he did after the death
of his favourite Curti. An intimacy ensued, which was like the second act
of Angiol Michele's life; an intimacy which, strengthened by mutual esteem
and interest, and cherished by habit and kind offices, continued during
twenty-four years, until terminated by the death of Mitelli. These two
friends added greatly to the excellent models of the art at Bologna; and
among their most celebrated labours are the chapel of Rosario, and the hall
of the Conti Caprara. Elsewhere, as in the Bentivogli and Pepoli palaces,
Agostino produced only specimens of architecture; and in others we see his
pictures of perspective conducted _a guazzo_, with figures by Gioseffo, his
son, a disciple of Torre, who engraved even better than he painted. In
their commissions beyond Bologna, Mitelli and Colonna were always invited
together; as to Parma, to Modena, to Florence, by their respective rulers;
by the Marchesi Balbi to Genoa, and by Cardinal Spada to Rome, whose ample
hall they enlarged, as it were, and dignified by means of feigned
colonnades, artful recesses, and magnificent steps, where numbers of
figures, arrayed in varied and novel drapery, were seen ascending and
descending. Called subsequently to the court of Philip IV., they decorated
three chambers and a magnificent hall in Madrid, where Colonna, too,
produced his so highly extolled Fable of Pandora. They here sojourned for
the space of two years, the last of Mitelli's life, who died much regretted
by the whole court, and by the Spanish artists, at whose head stood Diego
Velasquez.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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