Anderson
NOLI ME TANGERE
After the picture by Baroccio, once in the Ducal Collection at Urbino, now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Rome possesses by a better title three other pictures deserving the notice of those who desire to appreciate Baroccio. The Presentation of the Madonna (1594), and the Visitation, adorn the Chiesa Nuova, where the latter is said to have often inspired S. Filippo Neri's devotions; the Institution of the Sacrament according to the Romish rite, in the church of the Minerva, was a present from the Duke of Urbino to Clement VIII., who conferred upon the painter a gold chain. It is related that, in the original sketch, Satan was introduced, whispering treason into the ear of Judas, but was afterwards omitted, in deference to his Holiness's opinion, that the Devil ought not to be represented as "so much at ease in the Saviour's presence." On occasion of the same Pontiff's visit to Urbino, in 1598, he received from his host a golden vase for holy water, beautifully chased, with a painting by Baroccio at the bottom, wherein the infant Christ, seated on the clouds, gives the benediction with one hand, and supports the globe with the other. This charming miniature so delighted the Pope, that he had it removed from the benitier, and affixed to his daily office book.
The Cathedral of Urbino contains the latest of his great church pictures, representing the Last Supper, as well as the St. Sebastian, one of his early works, and it is interesting to contrast their respective styles. The St. Sebastian was commissioned for 100 florins in 1557, whilst the inspirations of Rome still hovered over his palette, and imparted vigour to his already Correggesque manner. This hackneyed and generally harrowing subject is treated with pleasing novelty, the group consisting of the saint, a graceful figure bound to a fig-tree, an imperious judge who has condemned him, and a brawny archer who carries the sentence into effect, whilst the Madonna and Child appear on high to support the martyr's faith and hope. In the Cenacolo, the fair promise of that able production is sadly abandoned: all those great qualities of his predecessors, which he began by happily imitating, are there replaced by extravagance, and even harmony is absent from his multifarious tints. Of his innumerable minor works we cannot pause to take note, and he scarcely ever painted in fresco. It is remarkable that, although his manner was, even in its defects, well suited to the voluptuous character of mythological fable, and to many a scene of mundane grandeur, he limited himself to sacred representations, almost the only exception being portraits. Of the latter, his most successful is Duke Francesco Maria, in rich armour, as he returned from the fight of Lepanto; it has been deservedly honoured with a place in the Tribune at Florence, and an equally beautiful repetition adorns the Camuccini collection at Rome.
The amount of his labours is inconceivable, considering the constant sufferings which he is represented to have undergone, from an almost total destruction of digestion, and habitual sleeplessness, consequent upon having been poisoned at thirty-two years of age. The large pictures we have mentioned are but few of those which he produced, yet no artist was more painstaking. Bellori assures us that he always prepared two cartoons and two coloured sketches, drawing exclusively from the life, and made many studies of drapery, separately perfecting his chiaroscuros from figures repeatedly modelled by his own hands, ere he transferred them to his paper. Such conscientious diligence could scarcely have been looked for in an artist whose works owe little to their outline, and may appear unnecessary to those who imitate his fusion only as a trick to mask defective design. This peculiar quality of his colouring was likewise matter of unwearied application, and he endeavoured to facilitate its results by an artificial scale, corresponding to notes in music, as a test for the gradation of his "tuneful" tints.
The merits of Baroccio consist in much variety and novelty of conception, in skilful management of his lights, and in the dexterous blending of strongly contrasted tints into a harmonious whole. The Correggesque tone of his pictures admirably conformed to the soft and gentle turn of his character; but whilst his design is more exact, and his foreshortenings are more true, he wants the breadth of Correggio; though his lights are more silvery and superficially lucent, his chiaroscuro neither attains to the force nor the depth of his prototype. The peculiar beauty at which he constantly aimed degenerates into a deformity; the almost cloying sweetness of his faces produces in the spectator a surfeit, inducing a desire for simpler fare. His figures are often deficient in self-possession, his colouring in verity, his compositions in solidity and repose. In a word, Baroccio shared the usual fate of eclectic painters, who, distrusting their own resources, seek to make up a manner from the combined excellences of their predecessors. Striving to engraft the grace of the Parmese upon the design of the Roman school, he fell into a flimsy mannerism, which, in straining after meretricious charms, departs from dignity and devotional feeling.