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
Footnote 13: This worthy writer would appear to have been
aware that he sometimes exceeded due bounds. In the course
of that work we meet with other expressions highly
creditable to Vasari; and it is well known, that having
spoken contemptuously of Raffaello, by designating him
_boccalaio Urbinate_, the potter of Urbino, because some
vases there had been painted from his designs, "he repented
of the expression so much as to lead him to erase it from as
many copies of the work as he could meet with." _Lett.
Pitt._ vol. vii. p. 130.
Dionisio Calvart, born at Antwerp, and hence also called Dionisio the
Fleming, came, when young, into Bologna, and displayed some ability in
landscape painting. In order to become a figure painter, he entered first
the school of Fontana, and next that of Sabbatini, whom he greatly assisted
in his labours for the Vatican. But after quitting also this master, and
occupying himself, some little time, in designing from Raffaello's
pictures, he returned to Bologna, opened a studio, and there educated as
many as a hundred and thirty-seven masters in the art, some of whom were
excellent. He was a fine artist for his age; understood perspective well,
which he acquired from Fontana, and designed both correctly and gracefully
in the taste of Sabbatini. He moreover possessed the art of colouring, in
the taste of his own countrymen, a quality which induced the Bolognese to
regard him as a restorer of their school, which in this branch of painting
had declined. If there were some degree of mannerism in his style, some
action in his figures too little dignified, or too extravagant; the former
was the fault of his age, and the latter of his temperament, which is
described as extremely restless and violent. Notwithstanding, he instructed
his pupils with assiduous care, and from the cartoons of the most
celebrated inventors he gave them lectures in the art. Different
collections abound with his small pictures, painted chiefly on copper,
representing incidents from the Gospel, which attract by the abundance of
the figures, by their spirit, and by the lusciousness of their tints.
Similar commissions in this line were then very frequently given in
Bologna; most times proceeding from the noviciate nuns, who were in the
habit of carrying with them into the cloister similar little paintings to
decorate their lonely cells; and Calvart provided abundance of them, with
the assistance of his young men, whose pieces he retouched; and they
obtained immense circulation both in Italy and Flanders. In particular
those conducted by Albano and Guido, his two pupils, boast the most
attractive graces, and may be known by a certain superior decision,
knowledge, and facility. In the list of his altar-pieces, the S. Michele,
at S. Petronio, and the Purgatory, at the Grazie, bear the palm; and from
these, as well as others, the best disciples of the Caracci confessed the
assistance which they received.
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