Aniello Falcone and Salvator Rosa are the great boast of this school; although Rosa frequented it but a short time and improved himself afterwards by the instructions of Falcone. Aniello possessed an extraordinary talent in battle pieces. He painted them both in large and small size, taking the subjects from the sacred writings, from profane history, or poetry; his dresses, arms, and features, were as varied as the combatants he represented. Animated in his expression, select and natural in the figures and action of his horses, and intelligent in military affairs, though he had never been in the army, nor seen a battle; he drew correctly, consulted truth in every thing, coloured with care, and had a good impasto. That he taught Borgognone as some have supposed, it is difficult to believe. Baldinucci, who had from that artist himself the information which he published respecting him, does not say a word of it. It is however true, that they were acquainted and mutually esteemed each other; and if the battle pieces of Borgognone have found a place in the collections of the great, and have been bought at great prices, those of Aniello have had the like good fortune. He had many scholars, and by means of them and some other painters his friends, he was enabled to revenge the death of a relation and also of a scholar, whom the Spanish authorities had put to death. On the revolution of Maso Aniello, he and his partisans formed themselves into a company called the Band of Death; and, protected by Spagnoletto, who excused them to the Viceroy, committed the most revolting and sanguinary excesses; until the state was composed, and the people reduced to submission, when this murderous band fled, to escape the hands of justice. Falcone withdrew to France for some years, and left many works there; the remainder fled to Rome, or to other places of safety.
The most celebrated of the immediate scholars of Falcone was Salvator Rosa, whom we have elsewhere noticed, who began his career by painting battles, and became a most distinguished landscape painter; and Domenico Gargiuoli, called Micco Spadaro, a landscape painter of merit, and a good painter in large compositions, as he appears at the Certosa, and in other churches. He had an extraordinary talent too in painting small figures, and might with propriety be called the Cerquozzi of his school. Hence Viviano Codagora, who was an eminent landscape painter, after becoming acquainted with him, would not permit any other artist to ornament his works with figures, as he introduced them with infinite grace; and this circumstance probably led to their intimate friendship, and to risking their lives in the same cause as we have before related. The Neapolitan galleries possess many of their pictures; and some have specimens of capricci, or humourous pictures, all by the hand of Spadaro. He indeed had no equal in depicting the manners and dresses of the common people of his country, particularly in large assemblies. In some of his works of this kind, the number of his figures have exceeded a thousand. He was assisted by the etchings of Stefano della Bella, and Callot, both of whom were celebrated for placing a great body of people in a little space; but it was in the true spirit of imitation, and without a trace of servility; on the contrary, he improved the principal figures (where bad contours are with difficulty concealed) and corrected the attitudes, and carefully retouched them.
Carlo Coppola is sometimes mistaken for Falcone from their similarity of manner: except that a certain fulness with which he paints his horses in his battle pieces, may serve as a distinction. Andrea di Lione resembles him, but in his battles we easily trace his imitation. Marzio Masturzo studied some time with Falcone; but longer with Rosa in Rome, and was his best scholar; but he is sometimes rather crude in his figures, and rocks, and trunks of trees, and less bright in his skies. His flesh tints are not pallid, like those of Rosa, as in these he followed Ribera.
I shall close this catalogue, passing over some less celebrated artists, with Paolo Porpora, who from battles, were directed by the impulse of his genius to the painting of animals, but succeeded best in fish, and shells, and other marine productions, being less skilled in flowers and fruit. But about his time Abraham Brughel painted these subjects in an exquisite style in Naples, where he settled and ended his days. From this period we may date a favourable epoch for certain pictures of minor rank, which still add to the decoration of galleries and contribute to the fame of their authors. After the two first we may mention Giambatista Ruoppoli and Onofrio Loth, scholars of Porpora, excelling him in fruits, and particularly in grapes, and little inferior in other respects.
Giuseppe Cav. Recco, from the same school, is one of the most celebrated painters in Italy, of hunting, fowling, and fishing pieces, and similar subjects. One of his best pictures which I have seen, is in the house of the Conti Simonetti d'Osimo, on which the author has inscribed his name. He was admired in the collections also for his beautiful colouring, which he acquired in Lombardy; and he resided for many years at the court of Spain, whilst Giordano was there. There was also a scholar of Ruoppoli, called Andrea Belvedere, excelling in the same line, but most in flowers and fruit. There arose a dispute between him and Giordano, Andrea asserting that the historical painters cannot venture with success on these smaller subjects; Giordano, on the contrary, maintaining that the greater included the less; which words he verified by painting a picture of birds, flowers, and fruit, so beautifully grouped that it robbed Andrea of his fame, and obliged him to take refuge among men of letters; and indeed in the literary circle he held a respectable station.
Nevertheless his pictures did not fall in esteem or value, and his posterity after him still continue to embellish the cabinets of the great. His most celebrated scholar was Tommaso Realfonso, who to the talents of his master, added that of the natural representation of every description of utensils, and all kinds of confectionery and eatables. He had also excellent imitators in Giacomo Nani, and Baldassar Caro, employed to ornament the royal court of King Charles of Bourbon; and Gaspar Lopez, the scholar first of Dubbisson, afterwards of Belvidere. Lopez became a good landscape painter, was employed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and resided a considerable time in Venice. According to Dominici he died in Florence, and the author of the Algarotti Catalogue in Venice, informs us, that that event took place about the year 1732. We may here close the series of minor painters of the school of Aniello,[[120]] and may now proceed to the succeeding epoch, commencing with the historical painters.
[111] In tom. iii. of the Lett. Pittoriche, is a letter of P. Sebastiano Resta dell'Oratorio, wherein he says, it is probable that the Cav. d'Arpino imitated him in his youth: which cannot be admitted, as it is known that Cesari formed himself in Rome, and resided only in Naples when an adult. As to the resemblance between them, that applies as well to other artists. In the same letter Corenzio is called the Cav. Bellisario, and some anecdotes are related of him, and among others, that he lived to the age of a hundred and twenty. This is one of those tales to which this writer so easily gives credit. In proof of this we may refer to Tiraboschi, in the life of Antonio Allegri, where similar instances of his credulity are noticed.
[112] Caravaggio had another scholar of eminence in Mario Minniti of Syracuse, who however passed a considerable part of his life in Messina. Having painted for some time in Rome with Caravaggio, he imbibed his taste; and though he did not equal him in the vigour of style, he displayed more grace and amenity. There are works remaining of him in all parts of Sicily, as he painted much, and retained in his service twelve scholars, whose works he retouched, and sold as his own. Hence his pictures do not altogether correspond with his reputation. Messina possesses several, as the Dead of Nain at the Church of the Capucins, and the Virgin, the tutelar saint, at the Virginelle.
[113] Among the scholars of Annibale, I find Carlo Sellitto mentioned, to whom Guarienti assigns a place in the Abbeccadario, and I further find him commended in some MS. notices of eminent artists of the school.
[114] There is a different account of him in the Memorie de' Pittori Messinesi, where it is said that his true family name was Rodriguez. It is there said that he studied in Rome, and went from thence to work in Naples, in the Guida of which city he is frequently mentioned. It is added that, from his Roman style, he was called by his brother Alonso, the slave of the antique; and that he returned the compliment by calling his brother, who was instructed in Venice, the slave of nature. But Alonso, who spent his life in Sicily, surpassed his brother in reputation; and it is a rare commendation that he painted much and well. He particularly shone in the Probatica in S. Cosmo de' Medici, and the picture of two Founders of Messina in the senatorial palace, a work rewarded with a thousand scudi. His fame declined, and he began to fail in commissions on the arrival of Barbalunga. But he did not, on that account, refuse him his esteem, as he was accustomed to call him the Caracci of Sicily.