At this brilliant epoch, the art of perspective too was carried to a high degree of perfection in deceiving the eye of the spectator. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, it had made great advances by the aid of P. Zaccolini, a Theatine monk of Cesena, in whose praise it is sufficient to observe, that Domenichino and Poussin were instructed by him in this art. S. Silvestro, in Montecavallo, possesses the finest specimen of this power of illusion, in a picture of feigned columns, and cornices and other architectural decorations. His original drawings remain in the Barberini library. Gianfrancesco Niceron de' P. P. Minimi added to this science by his work entitled Thaumaturgus opticus, 1643; and in a gallery of his convent at Trinità de' Monti, he painted some landscapes, which, on being viewed in a different aspect, are converted into figures. But the most practised artist in the academy of Rome, was Viviano Codagora, who drew from the ruins of ancient Rome, and also painted compositions of his own invention in perspective. He engaged Cerquozzi and Miel, and others in Rome, to insert the figures for him, but he was most partial to Gargiuoli of Naples, as we shall mention in our account of that school. Viviano may he called the Vitruvius of this class of painters. He was correct in his linear perspective, and an accurate observer of the style of the ancients. He gave his representations of marble the peculiar tint it acquires by the lapse of years, and his general tone of colour was vigorous. What subtracts the most from his excellence is a certain hardness, and too great a quantity of black, by which his pictures are easily distinguished from others in collections, and which in the course of time renders them dark and almost worthless. His true name is unknown to the greater number of the lovers of art, by whom he is called Il Viviani; and who seem to have confounded him with Ottavio Viviani of Brescia, who is mentioned by the Dictionaries; a perspective painter also, but in another branch, and in a different style, as we shall hereafter see.
[71] He excelled chiefly in architecture, although he had given a proof of his talents in painting, in some subjects in the gallery, executed under Gregory XIII.
[72] In the, not very accurate, catalogue of the pictures in Fabriano, besides the above mentioned fourteen, seven more are mentioned by the same master.
[73] Mention is also made of one Basilio Maggieri, an excellent painter of portraits.
[74] V. Le Pitture pubbliche di Piacenza, p. 81.
[75] In a letter of the Oretti correspondence, written in 1777, from Andrea Zanoni to the Prince Ercolani, I find Marini classed in the school of Ferraù da Faenza, and there still remain many pictures by him in the style of that master.
[76] Pascoli has restored to him the picture of S. Rosalia at the Maddalena, which Titi had ascribed to Michele Rocca, called Il Parmigianino, an artist of repute, and proper to be mentioned, as by those who are not acquainted with his name and style, he might be mistaken for Mazzuola, or perhaps Scaglia. The same author, soon afterwards, mentions Grecolini, and thereby renders any further notice of that artist on my part unnecessary.
[77] We ought to judge of him from the Visitation, at the church of the Orfanelli, rather than from the picture of various Saints, in Ara Cœli. This kind of observation may be extended to many other artists, who are commemorated for the sake of some superior work.
[78] Memoirs of this painter have been long a desideratum, as may be seen from the Lett. Pitt. tom. v. p. 257. I give such information as I have been able to procure in his native place, assisted by the researches of the very obliging Monsignore Massajuoli, Bishop of Nocera. Gio. Batista was born in Sassoferrato on the 11th July, 1605, and died in Rome on the 8th August, 1685. And I may here correct an error of my first edition, where it is printed 1635.
[79] There is a picture of the Rosario in the church of the Eremitani, with his name, and the year 1573. It is a large composition.