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
The masterly dignity of his character appears to most advantage in the
cloister of S. Michele in Bosco, where, assisted by his pupils, he
represented the actions of St. Benedict and St. Cecilia in thirty-seven
separate histories. By his hand is the Conflagration of Mount Cassino, and
some other portions; the remaining parts are by Guido, by Tiarini, by
Massari, by Cavedoni, by Spada, by Garbieri, by Brizio, and other young
artists. These paintings have been engraved, and are worthy of the
reformers of that age. On beholding what we may term this gallery by
different hands, we should be almost inclined to bestow upon the school of
Lodovico this trite eulogy; that from it, as from the Trojan horse, there
issued only princes. What does him still more honour is, that his relatives
themselves, down to the least and last, uniformly venerated him as a
preceptor, insomuch that Annibal, on the completion of the Farnese gallery,
invited him to Rome, as the adviser, arbiter, and umpire of that work. He
remained there less than two weeks, and then returning to his beloved
Bologna, he survived Agostino seventeen years, and Annibal ten. Being
separated from the two cousins, he employed himself at an advanced age in a
manner less studied, but still exemplary and masterly. Nor ought a few
slight inaccuracies of design to detract from the praise due to him,
inaccuracies which he fell into about this period, as in the drawing of the
hand of the Redeemer, in the act of calling St. Matthew to follow him, or
in the foot of the Madonna of the Annunciation painted at S. Pietro, a
fault which he saw too late, and it may be added, for which he died of
affliction. Other less well founded criticisms advanced against him by a
traveller have been fully rebutted and confuted by the Can. Crespi.[25]
Footnote 25: _Lettere Pittoriche_, tom. vii. lettera 4.
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