Michelangiolo Amerighi, or Morigi da Caravaggio, is memorable in this epoch, for having recalled the art from mannerism to truth, as well in his forms, which he always drew from nature, as in his colours, banishing the cinnabar and azures, and composing his colours of few but true tints, after the manner of Giorgione. Annibale Caracci extolling him, declares that he did not paint, but grind flesh, and both Guercino and Guido highly admired him, and profited from his example. He was instructed in the art in Milan, from whence he went to Venice to study Giorgione; and he adopted at the commencement of his career that subdued style of shadow, which he had learnt from that great artist, and in which some of the most highly prized works of Caravaggio are executed. He was however afterwards led away by his sombre genius, and represented objects with very little light, overcharging his pictures with shade. His figures inhabit dungeons, illuminated from above by only a single and melancholy ray. His backgrounds are always dark, and the actors are all placed in the same line, so that there is little perspective in his pictures; yet they enchant us, from the powerful effect which results from the strong contrast of light and shade. We must not look in him for correct design, or elegant proportion, as he ridiculed all artists who attempted a noble expression of countenance, or graceful foldings of drapery, or who imitated the forms of the antique, as exhibited in sculpture, his sense of the beautiful being all derived from visible nature. There is to be seen by him in the Spada palace a S. Anne, with the Virgin at her side, occupied in female work. Their features are remarkable only for their vulgarity, and they are both attired in the common dress of Rome, and are doubtless portraits, taken from the first elderly and young women that offered themselves to his observation. This was his usual manner; and he appeared most highly pleased when he could load his pictures with rusty armour, broken vessels, shreds of old garments, and attenuated and wasted bodies. On this account some of his works were removed from the altars, and one in particular at the Scala, which represented the Death of the Virgin, in which was figured a corpse, hideously swelled.
Few of his pictures are to be seen in Rome, and amongst them is the Madonna of Loreto, in the church of S. Agostino; but the best is the Deposition from the Cross, in the church of the Vallicella, which forms a singular contrast to the gracefulness of Barocci, and the seductive style of Guido, exhibited on the adjoining altars. He generally painted for collections. On his arrival in Rome he painted flowers and fruit; afterwards long pictures of half figures, a custom much practised after his time. In these he represented subjects sacred and profane, and particularly the manners of the lower classes, drinking parties, conjurors, and feasts. His most admired works are his Supper at Emmaus, in the Casa Borghese; S. Bastiano in Campidoglio; Agar, with Ishmael Dying, in the Panfili collection; and the picture of a Fruit Girl, which exhibits great resemblance of nature, both in the figures and accompaniments. He was still more successful in representing quarrels and nightly broils, to which he was himself no stranger, and by which too he rendered his own life scandalous. He fled from Rome for homicide, and resided for some time in Naples; from thence he passed to Malta, where, after having been honoured with the Cross by the Grand Master, for his talent displayed in his picture of the Decollation of S. John, in the oratory of the church of the Conventuals, he quarrelled with a cavalier and was thrown into prison. Escaping from thence with difficulty, he resided for some time in Sicily, and wished to return to Rome; but had not proceeded further on his journey than Porto Ercole, when he died of a malignant fever, in the year 1609. He left numerous works in these different countries, as we learn from Gio. Pietro Bellori, who wrote his life at considerable length. Of his chief scholars we shall treat in the following book. At present we will enumerate his followers in Rome and its territories.
His school, or rather the crowd of his imitators, who were greatly increased on his death, does not afford an instance of a single bad colourist; it has nevertheless been accused of neglect, both in design and grace. Bartolommeo Manfredi, of Mantua, formerly a scholar of Roncalli, might be called a second Caravaggio, except that he was rather more refined in his composition. His works are seldom found in collections, although he painted for them, as he died young, and is often supplanted by his master, as I believe was the case with some pictures painted for the Casa Medicea, mentioned by Baglione.
Carlo Saracino, or Saraceni, also called Veneziano, wishing to be thought a second Caravaggio, affected the same singular mode of dress as that master, and provided himself with a huge shagged dog, to which he gave the same name that Caravaggio had attached to his own. He left many works in Rome, both in fresco and oils. He too was a naturalista, but possessed a more clear style of colour. He displayed a Venetian taste in his figures, dressing them richly in the Levant fashion, and was fond of introducing into his compositions corpulent persons, eunuchs, and shaven heads. His principal frescos are in a hall of the Quirinal; his best oil pictures are thought to be those of S. Bonone, and a martyred bishop in the church dell'Anima. He is seldom found in collections; but, from the above peculiarities, I have more than once recognized his works. He returned to Venice, and soon afterwards died there; hence he was omitted by Ridolfi, and scarcely noticed by Zanetti.
Monsieur Valentino, as he is called in Italy, who was born at Brie, near Paris, and studied in Rome, became one of the most judicious followers of Caravaggio. He painted in the Quirinal the Martyrdom of the Saints Processo and Martiniano. He was a young artist of great promise, but was cut off by a premature death. His easel pictures are not very rare in Rome. The Denial of S. Peter, in the Palazzo Corsini, is a delightful picture.
Simone Vovet, the restorer of the French School, and the master of Le Brun, formed his style from the pictures of Caravaggio and Valentino. In Rome there are some charming productions by him both in public and private, particularly in the Barberini gallery. I have heard them preferred to many others that he painted in France in his noted rapid style.
Angiolo Caroselli was a Roman, in whose works, consisting chiefly of portraits and small figures, if we except the S. Vinceslao of the Quirinal palace, and a few similar pictures, we find the style of Caravaggio improved by an addition of grace and delicacy. He was remarkable for not making his design on paper, or using any preparatory study for his canvass. He is lively in his attitudes, rich in his tints, and finished and refined in his pictures, which are highly prized, but few in number, when we consider the term of his life. Besides practising the style of Caravaggio, in which he frequently deceived the most experienced, he imitated other artists in a wonderful manner. A S. Elena by him was considered as a production of Titian even by his rivals, until they found the cipher A. C. marked on the picture in small letters, and Poussin affirms, that he should have taken his two copies of Raffaello for genuine pictures, if he had not known where the originals were deposited.
Gherardo Hundhorst is called Gherardo dalle Notti, from having painted few subjects except illuminated night pieces, in which he chiefly excelled. He imitated Caravaggio, adopting only his better parts, his carnations, his vigorous pencil, and grand masses of light and shade: but he aimed also at correctness in his costume, selection in his forms, gracefulness of attitude, and represented religious subjects with great propriety. His pictures are very numerous, and the Prince Giustiniani possesses the one of Christ led by night to the Judgment Seat, which is one of his most celebrated works.
The school of Caravaggio flourished for a considerable period, but its followers, painting chiefly for private individuals, have in a great degree remained unknown. Baglione makes particular mention of Gio. Serodine, of Ascona, in Lombardy, and enumerates many works by him, more remarkable for their facility of execution than their excellence. There remains no public specimen of him, except a Decollation of S. John at S. Lorenzo fuor delle Mura. One of the latest of the school of Caravaggio was Tommaso Luini, a Roman, who, from his quarrelsome disposition, and his style, was called Il Caravaggino. He worked in Rome, and appeared most to advantage when he painted the designs of his master, Sacchi, as at S. Maria in Via. When he embodied his own ideas, his design was rather dry and his colouring dark. About the same time Gio. Campino of Camerino, who received his first instructions under Gianson in Flanders, resided in Rome for some years, and increased the number of this school. He was afterwards painter to the court of Madrid, and died in Spain. It is not known whether or not Gio. Francesco Guerrieri di Fossombrone ever studied in Rome, but his works are to be seen at Filippini di Fano, where he painted in a chapel, S. Carlo contemplating the Mysteries of the Passion, with two lateral pictures from the life of that saint; and in another chapel, where he represented the Dream of S. Joseph, his style resembles that of Caravaggio, but possesses more softness of colour, and more gracefulness of form. In the Duomo of Fabriano is also a S. Joseph by him. He has left, in his native place, an abundance of works, which, if distributed more widely, would give him a celebrity which it has not hitherto been his lot to receive. I there saw, in a church, a night piece of S. Sebastian attended by S. Irene, a picture of most beautiful effect; a Judith, in possession of the Franceschini family; other works in the Casa Passionei and elsewhere, very charming, and which often shew that he had very much imitated Guercino. His female forms are almost all cast in the same mould, and are copied from the person of a favorite mistress.
We now come to the Caracci and their school. Before Annibale arrived in Rome, he had already formed a style which left nothing to be desired, except to be more strongly imbued with the antique. Annibale added this to his other noble qualities when he came to Rome; and his disciples, who trod in his steps, and continued after his death to paint in that city, are particularly distinguished by this characteristic from those who remained in Bologna under the instruction of his cousin Lodovico. The disciples of Annibale left scholars in Rome; but no one except Sacchi approached so near in merit to his master, as they had done to Annibale, nor did there appear, like them, any founder of an original style. Still they were sufficient to put a check on the mannerists, and the followers of Caravaggio, and to restore the Roman School to a better taste. We shall now proceed to enumerate their scholars in their various classes.