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 — John Shaqi
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
examples left by Giorgio Vasari at San Michele in Bosco, in Bologna, in
Michelangiolo's style. Nor did these examples prove more useful to the
Bolognese than they had done to the Florentine artists; and here also they
opened the path to a less correct style. It is known that Vasari's works
were much commended there, and copied by young artists; that he had,
moreover, assistants among the Bolognese, such as Bagnacavallo, the
younger, and Fontana, who instructed not a few of his fellow citizens in
the art. To these causes we may attribute the circumstance, that those
Bolognese artists, nearest to the Caracci, were accustomed to colour, for
the most part, like the Florentines of the third epoch, that several were
extremely careless of the chiaroscuro, and frequently pursued the ideal and
the practical, more than nature and truth. Yet these complaints do not
apply either to so great a number of Bolognese, or to so long a period, as
to give a different aspect to the whole epoch. The one which we are now
about to describe, abounds with excellent artists; and to this shortly
succeeded the epoch of the Caracci, which improved the good, and brought
many extravagant artists into a correct method.
The earliest founders of the new school were Bartolommeo Ramenghi, called
Bagnacavallo, being sprung from thence, and Innocenzio Francucci da Imola.
Both educated by Francia, the former subsequently went to Rome, where we
have given an account of him among Raffaello's assistants; the latter to
Florence, where he attached himself to the school of Albertinelli, besides
studying very accurately, if I mistake not, the works of Frate and Andrea
del Sarto. Both, on returning to Bologna, met with rivals, though less with
the pencil than the tongue, in Aspertini and Cotignuola, artists whose
works present no instance of a style wholly modern. One master, Domenico, a
Bolognese, then flourished, equal to compete with the first names, but who
resided out of his native place. His name, lost during two or more
centuries, was brought to light, a few years ago, from the archives of S.
Sigismondo of Cremona, in whose church he executed, upon the ceiling, a
picture of Jonah ejected from the whale, which, in respect of the _di sotto
in su_, is most admirable. It was completed in 1537, when this art was yet
new in Italy; and I am at a loss to say whether Domenico acquired it from
Coreggio, or, as is more likely, from Melozzo, whose style he most
resembles of the two. I have seen no other work, nor met with any other
notice of this artist, unknown even to the Bolognese historians, perhaps on
account of his constant residence out of the place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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