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
Subsequent to 1409, the latest epoch of the paintings of Lippo, the
Bolognese School began to decline; nor could it well be otherwise.
Dalmatio, an instructor of youth, was not by profession a painter of
history; and, as portrait painters never particularly promoted the progress
of any school, so on his part he conferred little benefit on his own. This
decline has been attributed to some specimens of art brought from
Constantinople, overcharged with dark lines in the contours and folds, and
in the remaining parts resembling rather the dryness and inelegance of the
Greek mosaic-workers, than the softness and grace then sought to be
introduced by the most eminent Italians in the art. Copies of these were
eagerly inquired for in Bologna, and in all adjacent cities, which produced
that abundance of them, still to be seen in the sale shops and private
houses throughout those districts, besides several in the city and state of
Venice.[5] But, in these instances, they were only copied; in Bologna they
were imitated likewise by several pupils of Lippo, who, either in part or
altogether, adopted that style in their own compositions. One Lianori,
usually inscribing his name _Petrus Joannis_, and known by some works
interspersed in different churches and collections, is most accused of this
extravagance; an Orazio di Jacopo, (perhaps dell'Avanzi) of whom there
remains a portrait of S. Bernardino, at the church of the Osservanza; a
Severo da Bologna, to whom is ascribed a rude altar-piece, in the Malvezzi
Museum; with several others, either little known or unmentioned, whose
names I am not surprised should be omitted by Vasari, who, in the same way,
passes over the least distinguished of his own country. It is true, he
makes mention of one Galante da Bologna, who, he avers, designed better
than Lippo, his master; but in this he is still taken to task by Malvasia,
who includes Galante among the inferior pupils of Dalmasio.
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