Rome possesses vast works in fresco of Taddeo; among the best of these
are some Gospel stories at the Consolazione. He seldom painted in oil,
and less commendably in large than small: some of these are cabinet
pictures of exquisite finish,--such a one, (formerly in the collection
of the Duke of Urbino, but more recently at Osimo in the Palace
Leopardi,) is the Nativity of the Saviour, and in Taddeo's very best
style. But the work on which his fame chiefly rests, are the paintings
of the Palazzo Farnese, at Caprarola (engraved in a moderate volume, by
Prenner, 1748). They represent the Feats of the Farnese Family, in peace
and war; to which are joined other stories, both sacred and profane;
but what attracts attention most, is the celebrated "Stanza del Sonno,"
an apartment dedicated to Sleep, replete with a great variety of
allegoric imagery, suggested to him by Annibale Caro, in a long, quaint
letter, printed among his familiar ones, and reproduced among the
"Lettere Pittoriche," t. iii. l. 99.
Dissimilar in the pursuits of life, Taddeo resembled Raffaello in death;
he completed thirty-seven years, and obtained a monument close to
Sanzio, in the "Rotonda."
His brother and pupil Federigo, inferior in design, resembles him in
taste, though more mannered, more capricious in conceit, more crowded in
composition. He completed what death had prevented Taddeo from finishing
in the Sala Regia, that of Farnese, the Trinità de' Monti, and
elsewhere, with the airs of heir-at-law to his brother's talents. Thus
he raised an opinion of capacity for greater enterprise, and was invited
by Francis I. to paint the great Cupola of the metropolitan church at
Florence, which death alone had saved from Vasari's hands. There
Federigo painted more than three hundred figures of fifty feet in
height each, besides that of Lucifer, "so enormous," to use his own
phrase, "that it makes the other figures appear infants;[99]--figures,"
he adds, "larger than the world ever witnessed before in Art." So
little, however, hugeness excepted, is there to admire in this work,
that at the time of Pier da Cortona, a painting of that master would
have been substituted for it, had it not been feared that he would not
live long enough to terminate the whole. After the Cupola, every work of
consequence at Rome appeared his due, and he was recalled by Gregorio to
paint the ceiling of the Paolina, and give a successor to Michael
Angelo. It was at that period, that, on a charge preferred against him
by some courtiers or domestics of Gregorio, he painted and exhibited the
picture of Calumny, and his accusers with asses-ears, which raised a
clamour that obliged him to fly from Rome. During his exile, which
lasted some years, he visited Flanders, Holland, England; had a call
even from Venice to paint a subject in the Ducal Palace, was everywhere
caressed and remunerated, and, the Pope being mitigated, returned to
reassume his interrupted labours in the Capella; the best work perhaps
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account