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 31: See the defence set up by Crespi, both for
Domenichino and Massari, another imitator of Agostino's
picture. It is inserted in the _Certosa di Bologna_,
described at p. 26. He has also been commended by Bellori
for his slowness of hand, who brings forward some of his
maxims, such as that, "no single line is worthy of a real
painter which is not dictated by the genius before it is
traced by the hand; that excellence consists in the full and
proper completion of works;" and he used to reproach those
pupils who designed in sketch, and coloured by dashes of the
pencil (p. 213). We meet with a third apology in Passeri,
(p. 4,) for some figures borrowed from the Farnese Gallery,
and imitated by Domenichino in the histories of St. Jerome
in the portico of S. Onofrio. At p. 9 too he defends him in
regard to the style of his folds, in which by some he was
thought too scanty, and too hard in their disposition.
There is a small, but inestimable picture of St. Francis, that belonged to
the late Count Jacopo Zambeccari, at Bologna. The saint is seen in the act
of prayer, and by the animated and flushed expression of the eyes, it
appears as if his heart had just been dissolved in tears. Two pictures,
likewise beautifully composed, I have seen at Genoa; the Death of Adonis
bewailed by Venus, in the Durazzo Gallery just before mentioned, and the S.
Rocco in the Brignole Sale, offering up prayers for the cessation of the
plague. The attitude of the holy man; the eagerness of those who seek him;
the tragic exhibition of the dying and the dead around him; a funeral
procession going by; an infant seen on the bosom of its dead mother, vainly
seeking its wonted nutriment; all shake the soul of the spectator as if he
were beholding the real scene. Among his pictures from profane history the
most celebrated is his Chase of Diana, in the Borghesi Palace, filled with
spirited forms of nymphs, and lively incidents. In the same collection are
some of his landscapes, as well as in that of Florence; and some of his
portraits in others. Here too he is excellent, but they are the least
difficult branches to acquire. Respecting his other works, and the most
eminent of his pupils, enough has been stated in the Roman and Neapolitan
schools. He educated for his native place Gio. Batista Ruggieri; and to his
numerous other misfortunes was added the pain of finding him ungrateful,
after having rendered him eminent in his art. This pupil united with Gessi
in quality of assistant; and as we shall shew, also took his denomination
from him. Passeri dwells on this disappointment of Domenichino incidentally
in his life of Algardi, (p. 198).
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