The Louvre: Fifty Plates in ColourBrockwell, Maurice W.
History
The Louvre: Fifty Plates in Colour
Brockwell, Maurice W.
Musée du Louvre
The remaining pictures of this school are of little account. Bernardino
Campi (1522-1592?) is represented by a _Mater Dolorosa_ (No. 1202); and
Bartolommeo Manfredi (1580?-1617) by a _Fortune Teller_ (No. 1368), a
subject which demonstrates the Decadence in full operation. Giovanni
Paolo Panini (1695-1764), who came to Paris in 1732 and became an
Academician, seems to have got some satisfaction out of committing to
canvas a _Concert given at Rome on Dec. 26, 1729, in Honour of the
Birth of the Dauphin, the son of Louis XV._ (No. 1409) and a large
_Interior of St. Peter’s at Rome_ (No. 1408), the latter being signed
and dated 1730.
THE SCHOOL OF FERRARA-BOLOGNA
The city of Bologna was visited in 1268 by Oderigi of Gubbio (fl.
1268-1295), who had the benefit of personal intercourse with Giotto in
Rome. Bologna produced a skilled miniature painter in Franco Bolognese
in the fourteenth century, but gave birth to few native painters
of merit. Until Francesco Cossa removed from Ferrara to Bologna in
1470, art in the City of the Colonnades was in an undeveloped state.
The school of Bologna, which may be considered as an offshoot of the
Ferrarese school, was further strengthened by the arrival of Lorenzo
Costa.
Lorenzo Costa (1460-1535), who had been a pupil of Francesco Cossa at
Ferrara, worked for the Bentivogli family in Bologna until 1509. In
that year he was induced to fix his abode in Mantua at the instance of
the Marquis Francesco Gonzaga and his wife Isabella d’Este, whose court
painter, Andrea Mantegna, had died three years earlier. Costa there
painted about 1510 his _Court of Isabella d’Este in the Garden of the
Muses_ (No. 1261), which is signed
L. COSTA F.
This famous canvas shows a weakness of drawing and a “want of force
that mars what is meant for grace.” Costa’s _Mythological Scene_ (No.
1262) is not now exhibited, but in it, as in the majority of his works,
the figures have no real existence. The heads are usually “screwed
on—not always at the proper angle—to crosspoles hung about with
clothes.” His landscapes, however, “without being in any sense serious
studies, are among the loveliest painted in his day.”
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