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
greatly commends these works, the Caracci, to whose judgment we would
rather defer, have bestowed higher praises on those executed by Pellegrino
for the church of S. Jacopo; and it was on these pictures that both the
Caracci and their pupils bestowed most study. In one is represented the
preaching of St. John in the desert; in another the separation of the elect
from the wicked, where, in the features of the celestial messenger
announcing the tidings, Pellegrino displayed those of his favourite
Michelangiolo. What a school for design and for expression is here! What
art in the distribution of such a throng of figures, in varying and in
grouping them! In Loreto too, and in different adjacent cities, he produced
other histories, less celebrated perhaps, but all nearly as deserving of
the burin as those executed at Bologna. Such is the Entrance of Trajan into
Ancona, in possession of the Marchese Mancinforte; and various exploits of
Scipio, belonging to the accomplished nobleman, Marchese Ciccolini, which
decorate one of his halls, where he himself pointed them out to me. It is a
work conceived in a more refined and graceful taste than we meet with in
other compositions of Tibaldi; and of the same composition I have seen some
of his pictures on a very small scale; but rare, like all his pieces in
oil; wrought with the exquisite finish of a miniaturist; mostly rich in
figures, full of fine spirit, vivid colouring, and decorated with all the
pleasing perspectives that architecture could afford. This indeed was his
favourite art; which, after he had afforded some beautiful specimens of it
in Piceno, and next at Milan, procured him an appointment from Philip II.
to superintend the engineers at the Spanish Court. There again, after the
lapse of twenty years, during which he never touched the easel, he resumed
the art of painting; and we meet with a list of his works in the Escurial
of Mazzolari.
Footnote 11: In vol. iv. p. 47.
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