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
Towards the beginning of the sixteenth century, or shortly afterwards,
Bartolommeo di Forli flourished in the same city, a pupil of Francia,
noticed by Malvasia, whose style was more dry than that of the generality
of his fellow pupils. Next to him I place Palmegiani, transformed by Vasari
into Parmegiano; a good, yet almost unknown artist, of whom, in books upon
the art, I have found mention only of two works, although I have myself
seen a great number. He was cautious too that posterity should not forget
him, for the most part inscribing his name and country upon his
altar-pieces, and upon pictures for private ornament, as follows: _Marcus
Pictor Foroliviensis_: or _Marcus Palmasanus P. Foroliviensis pinsebat_. He
seldom adds the year, as in two in possession of prince Ercolani, on the
first of which we find the date of 1513, and on the second that of 1537. In
the forementioned pictures, and more particularly in those of Forli, we may
perceive that he practised more than one style. His earliest was in common
with that of the quattrocentisti, in the extremely simple position of the
figures, in the gilt ornaments in study of each minute part, as well as in
the anatomy, which in those times consisted almost wholly in drawing with
some skill a S. Sebastian, or some holy anchorite. In his second manner he
was more artificial in his grouping, fuller in his outlines, and greater in
his proportions; though at times more free and less varied in his heads. He
was accustomed to add to his principal subject some other unconnected with
it, as in his picture of the Crucifixion, at S. Agostino di Forli, where he
inserted two or three groups on different grounds; in one of which is seen
S. Paul visited by S. Antony; in another, S. Augustine convinced by the
angel on the subject of the incomprehensibility of the Supreme Triad; and
in these diminutive figures, which he inserted either in the altar-pieces
or on the steps, he displays an art extremely refined and pleasing. His
landscape is likewise animated, and his architecture beautiful, while his
Madonnas and other portraits are superior in point of beauty to those of
Costa, but not equal to Francia, whose style of colouring he less resembles
than that of Rondinello; a circumstance which led Vasari to attribute to
the artist of Ravenna an altar-piece in the cathedral, undoubtedly from the
hand of Palmegiani. The works of the latter are very numerous in Romagna;
and exist in the state of Venice. One of his Madonnas was in possession of
the Ab. Facciolati, in Padua, and mentioned by Bottari; and another belongs
to the Sig. Dottore Antonio Larber, at Bassano. The select gallery of Count
Luigi Tadini, at Crema, possesses a third; the going up of Jesus to Mount
Calvary; and I saw a Dead Christ, between Nicodemus and Joseph, in the
Vicentini palace at Vicenza; a very beautiful picture, in which the dead
has truly the appearance of death, and those living of real life. I had
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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