Il Montagna, another artist from Holland, was also a painter of sea views, which may almost indeed be called the landscapes of the Dutch. He left many works in Italy, more particularly in Florence and in Rome, where he is sometimes mistaken for Tempesta in the galleries and in picture sales; but Montagna, as far as I can judge, is more serene in his skies, and darker in his waves and the appearance of the sea. A large picture of the Deluge, which is at S. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, placed there in 1668, in which the figures are by the Cav. Liberi, is supposed to be by Montagna, from the tone of the water. This however is an error, for the Montagna of whom we speak, called by Felibien (tom. iii. p. 339,) Montagna di Venezia, certainly died in Padua; and in a MS. by a contemporary author, where he is mentioned as a distinguished sea painter, he is said to have died in 1644. I apprehend this is the same artist whom Malvasia (tom. ii. p. 78,) calls Mons. Rinaldo della Montagna, and states that he was held in esteem by Guido for his excellence in sea views. I also find a Niccolo de Plate Montagna, favourably mentioned by Felibien, also a marine painter, who died about 1665; and I formerly imagined that this might be the artist who painted so much in Italy, but I now retract that opinion.
Tempesti was the first to introduce the custom of decorating landscapes with battles and skirmishes. A Flemish artist of the name of Jacopo succeeded to him in this branch, but his fame was eclipsed by his own scholar Cerquozzi, a Roman, who from his singular talent in this respect, was called Michelangiolo delle Battaglie. He was superior to Tempesti in colouring, but inferior to him in designing horses. In the human figure, too, he is less correct, and more daring in the style of his master Cesari. It must however be remembered, that when Cerquozzi painted battles he was not in his prime, and that his chief merit lay in subjects on which I shall presently make some remarks.
Padre Jacopo Cortese, a Jesuit, called from his native country Il Borgognone, carried this branch of the art to a height unknown before or since. M. A. Cerquozzi discovered his genius for this department, and persuaded him to abandon the other branches of painting which he cultivated, and to confine himself to this alone. The Battle of Constantine, by Giulio Romano in the Vatican, was the model on which he founded his style. His youth had been dedicated to arms, and his military spirit was not to be extinguished by the luxury of Rome, or the indolence of the cloister. He imparted a wonderful air of reality to his compositions. His combatants appear before us courageously contending for honour or for life, and we seem to hear the cries of the wounded, the blast of the trumpet, and the neighing of the horses. He was indeed an inimitable artist in his line, and his scholars were accustomed to say that their own figures seemed to fight only in jest, while those of Borgognone were the real occupants of the field of battle. He painted with great despatch, and his battle pieces are in consequence very frequent in collections; his touch was rapid, in strokes, and his pencil flowing, so that the effect is heightened by distance; and this style was probably the result of his study of Paolo at Venice, and of Guido in Bologna. From whatever cause it may be, his colouring is very different from that of Guglielmo Baur, who is considered his master, and of whom there are some works in the Colonna gallery. There also may be seen several specimens of his scholars, Bruni, Graziano, and Giannizero, who adopted from Borgognone their colouring, and the selection of a distant point of view for their subject. Others of his scholars occur in various schools.
It was also during the pontificate of Urban, about the year 1626, that the burlesque style was first brought into notice in Rome. It had been practised by Ludius in the time of Augustus, and was not wholly unknown to our early artists; but I am not aware that any one had exercised this branch as a profession, or on so small a scale as was practised by Pietro Laar, who was called Bamboccio, from his deformity, as well as from the subjects of his pencil; and the appellation of bambocciate is generally applied to these small pictures, which represent the festivities of the vintage, dances, fights, and carnival masquerades. His figures are usually of a span in size, and the accompanying landscape and the animals are so vividly coloured, that we seem, says Passeri, to see the very objects themselves from an open window, rather than the representation on canvass. The great painters frequently purchased the pictures of Pietro, in order to study his natural style of colour, though at the same time they lamented that so much talent should be misapplied to such low subjects.[[83]] He resided many years in Rome, and then retired to Holland, where he died at an advanced age, and not a young man, as Passeri has imagined.
His place and his employ in Rome were soon filled up by Cerquozzi, who had for some time past exchanged the name of M. A. delle Battaglie, for that of M. A. delle Bambocciate. Although the subjects which he represents are humourous, like those of Laar, the incidents and the characters are for the most part different. The first adopted the Flemish boors, the other the peasantry of Italy. They had both great force of colour, but Bamboccio excels Cerquozzi in landscape, while the latter discovers more spirit in his figures. One of Cerquozzi's largest compositions is in the Spada palace at Rome, in which he represented a band of insurgent Lazzaroni applauding Maso Aniello.
Laar had another excellent imitator in Gio. Miel, of Antwerp, who having imbibed a good style of colouring from Vandyke, came to Rome and frequented the school of Sacchi. From thence, however, he was soon dismissed, as his master wished him to attempt serious subjects, but he was led both by interest and genius to the burlesque. His pictures pleased from their spirited representations and their excellent management of light and shade, and brought high prices from collectors. He afterwards painted on a larger scale, and besides some altarpieces in Rome, he left some considerable works in Piedmont, where we shall notice him again. Theodore Hembreker, of Haerlem, also employed himself on humourous subjects, and scenes of common life, although there are some religious pieces attributed to him in the church della Pace in Rome, and a number of landscapes in private collections. He passed many years in Italy, and visited most of the great cities, so that his works are frequently found not only in Rome, where he had established himself, but in Florence, Naples, Venice, and elsewhere. His style is a pleasing union of the Flemish and Italian.
Many artists of this period attached themselves to the painting of animals. Castiglione distinguished himself in this line, but he resided for the most part of his time in another country. M. Gio. Rosa, of Flanders, is the most known in Rome and the State, for the great number of his paintings of animals, in which he possessed a rare talent. It is told of him, that dogs were deceived by the hares he painted, thus reviving the wonderful story of Zeuxis, so much boasted of by Pliny. Two of his largest and finest pictures are in the Bolognetti collection, and there is attached to them a portrait, but whether of the painter himself, or some other person, is not known. We must not confound this artist with Rosa da Tivoli, who was also an excellent animal painter, but not so celebrated in Italy, and flourished at a later period, and whose real name was Philip Peter Roos. He was son-in-law of Brandi, and his scholar in Rome, and rivalled his hasty method in many pictures which I have seen in Rome and the states of the church; but we ought not to rest our decision of his merits on these works, but should view the animals painted by him at his leisure, particularly for the galleries of princes. These are to be found in Vienna, Dresden, Monaco, and other capital cities of Germany; and London possesses not a few of the first value in their way.[[84]]
After Caravaggio had given the best examples of flowers in his pictures, the Cav. Tommaso Salini, of Rome, an excellent artist, as may be seen in a S. Niccola at S. Agostino, was the first that composed vases of flowers, accompanying them with beautiful groups of corresponding foliage, and other elegant designs. Others too pursued this branch, and the most celebrated of all, was Mario Nuzzi della Penna, better known by the name of Mario da' Fiori; whose productions during his life were emulously sought after, and purchased at great prices; but after the lapse of some years, not retaining their original freshness, and acquiring, from a vicious mode of colouring, a black and squalid appearance, they became much depreciated in value. The same thing happened to the flower pieces of Laura Bernasconi, who was his best imitator, and whose works are still to be seen in many collections.
Orsini informs us, that he found in Ascoli some paintings of flowers by another of the fair sex, to whose memory the Academy of S. Luke in Rome erected a marble monument in their church, not so much in compliment to her talents in painting, as in consequence of her having bequeathed to that society all her property, which was considerable. In her epitaph she is commemorated only as a miniature painter, and Orlandi describes her as such, adding, that she resided for a long time in Florence, where she left a large number of portraits in miniature of the Medici, and other princes of that time, about the year 1630. She also painted in other capitals of Italy, and died at an advanced age in Rome, in 1673.
Michelangiolo di Campidoglio of Rome, was greatly distinguished for his masterly grouping of fruits. Though almost fallen into oblivion from the lapse of years, his pictures are still to be met with in Rome, and in other places. The noble family of Fossombroni in Arezzo, possess one of the finest specimens of him that I have ever seen. More generally known is Pietro Paolo Bonzi, called by Baglione, Il Gobbo di Cortona, which was his native place; by others, Il Gobbo de' Caracci, from his having been employed in their school; and by the vulgar, Il Gobbo da' Frutti, from the natural manner of his painting fruit. He did not pass the bounds of mediocrity in historical design, as we may see from his S. Thomas, in the church of the Rotonda, nor in landscapes; but he was unrivalled in painting fruits, and designing festoons, as in the ceiling of the Palazzo Mattei; and in his elegant grouping of fruit in dishes and baskets, as I have seen in Cortona, in the house of the noble family of Velluti, in the Olivieri gallery in Pesaro, and elsewhere. The Marchesi Venuti, in Cortona, have a portrait of him painted, it is believed, by one of the Caracci, or some one of their school, and it is well known, that the drawing of caricatures was a favourite amusement of that academy.