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
I have only enumerated the paintings which these artists exhibited in the
Guastato, but Giovanni left numerous works in the same style and on similar
subjects, at the Gesù and at S. Domenico in Genoa, and at S. Antonio Abate
in Milan, where he died; without mentioning the many fables and stories
with which he adorned various palaces in his native city. Of the other
brother it is not equally easy to recount all that he painted in private
houses, and in the before-mentioned churches, and at S. Siro and elsewhere.
The histories of the chapel in the Palazzo Reale are amongst his most
original and delightful works; Columbus discovering the Indies; the
Martyrdom of the Giustiniani at Scio; the Remains of the Baptist brought to
Genoa, and other Ligurian subjects. Nor is it easy to enumerate his many
altar-pieces and oil pictures to be found in the churches. I shall limit
myself here to the three histories of S. Clemente Ancirano at the Guastato;
pictures, characterised by such congruity, such truth, and such a peculiar
horror, as to force us to withdraw our eyes from the inhumanity of the
scene. Some persons may, perhaps, be indisposed to give full credit to all
that I have written of Gio. Batista; as it seems incredible that an artist
should be so little known, who united in himself the most opposite
qualities; a wonderful skill both in oil and fresco; equal excellence in
colour and design; facility and correctness; an immense number of works,
and a diligence shewn by few fresco painters. But they who have viewed the
works I have mentioned, with unprejudiced eyes, will not, I feel confident,
differ far from me in opinion. He lived to the age of eighty-five, and lost
neither his vigour of invention nor his genius for grand composition; nor
the freedom of hand, and incomparably fine pencil with which he treated
them. I shall allude, in another epoch, to his sons Andrea and Niccolo; but
I must not neglect to observe, that both Pascoli and Orlandi have written
of this family with little accuracy.
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