One of his most distinguished works is the sacristy of the P. P. Teatini detti di S. Paolo Maggiore, painted in various compartments. His pictures also in the arches of the chapels in the church of the Holy Apostles deserve to be mentioned. That work had been executed by Giacomo del Po, to correspond with the style of the tribune, and the other works which Lanfranco had painted there: but Po did not satisfy the public expectation. The whole work was therefore effaced, and Solimene was employed to paint it over again, and proved that he was more worthy of the commission. The chapel of S. Filippo in the church of the Oratory, is a proof of his extreme care and attention; every figure in it being almost as finely finished as a miniature. Among private houses the most distinguished is the Sanfelice, so called from the name of his noble scholar Ferdinand, for whom he painted a gallery, which afterwards became an academy for young artists. Of his large pictures we may mention that of the great altar in the church of the monks of S. Gaudioso, without referring to others in the churches and in various parts of the kingdom; particularly at Monte Cassino, for the church of which he painted four stupendous pictures in the choir. They will be found in the Descrizione Istorica del Monistero di Monte Cassino, edited in Naples, in 1751. He is not often met with in private collections in Italy, beyond the kingdom of Naples. In Rome the princes Albani and Colonna have some large compositions by him, and the Bonaccorsi family a greater number in the gallery of Macerata; and among them the death of Dido, a large picture of fine effect. His largest work in the ecclesiastical state, is a Supper of our Lord, in the refectory of the Conventuals of Assisi, an elegant composition, painted with exquisite care, where the artist has given his own portrait among the train of attendants.
Solimene instilled his own principles into the minds of his disciples, who formed a numerous school, which extended even beyond the kingdom of Naples, about the beginning of the eighteenth century. Among those who remained in Naples, was Ferdinando Sanfelice, lately noticed by us, a nobleman of Naples, who put himself under the instructions of Francesco, and became as it were the arbiter of his wishes. As the master could not execute all the commissions which crowded on him from every quarter, the surest mode to engage him was to solicit him through Sanfelice, to whom alone he could not deny any request. By the assistance of Solimene, Sanfelice attained a name among historical painters, and painted altarpieces for several churches. He took great delight in fruit, landscapes, and views, in which he particularly excelled, and had also the reputation of an eminent architect. But perhaps none of the disciples of Solimene approached nearer to the fame of their master than Francesco de Mura, called Franceschiello. He was a Neapolitan by birth, and contributed much to the decoration of his native city, both in public and private. Perhaps no work on the whole procured him a greater degree of celebrity than the frescos painted in various chambers of the Royal Palace of Turin, where he competed with Beaumont, who was then in the height of his reputation. He there ornamented the ceilings of some of the rooms which contain the Flemish pictures. The subjects which he chose, and treated with much grace, were the Olympic Games, and the Deeds of Achilles. In other parts of the palace he also executed various works. Another artist, who was held in consideration, was Andrea dell'Asta, who after being instructed by Solimene, went to finish his studies in Rome, and engrafted on his native style some imitation of Raffaello and the antique. We may enumerate among his principal works, the two large pictures of the Nativity, and the Epiphany of Christ, which he painted in Naples for the church of S. Agostino de' P. P. Scalzi. Niccolo Maria Rossi was also reputably employed in the churches of Naples, and in the court itself. Scipione Cappella excelled all the scholars of Solimene in copying his pictures, which were sometimes touched by the master and passed for originals. Giuseppe Bonito had a good invention, and was a distinguished portrait painter, and was considered one of the best imitators of Solimene. He was at the time of his death painter to the court of Naples. Conca and he excel their fellow disciples in the selection of their forms. Other scholars in Naples and Sicily,[[124]] less known to me, will be found in the history of painting in Naples, which has been recently published by the accomplished Sig. Pietro Signorelli, a work which I have not in my possession, but which is cited by me, as is the case with several more, on the authority of others.
Some artists, who resided out of the kingdom, we shall notice in other schools, and in the Roman School we have already spoken sufficiently of Conca and Giaquinto; to whom we may add Onofrio Avellino, who resided some years in Rome, executing commissions for private persons, and painting in the churches. The vault of S. Francesco di Paola is the largest work he left. The works of Maja and Campora are to be found in Genoa, those of Sassi in Milan, and of others of the school of Solimene in various cities. These artists, it is to be regretted, sometimes passed the boundaries prescribed by their master. His colouring, though it might be more true to nature, is yet such as never offends, but possesses on the contrary a degree of amenity which pleases us. But his scholars and imitators did not confine themselves within their master's limits, and it may be asserted, that from no school has the art suffered more than from them. Florence, Verona, Parma, Bologna, Milan, Turin, in short, all Italy was infected with their style; and by degrees their pictures presented so mannered a colouring, that they seemed to abandon the representation of truth and nature altogether. The habit too of leaving their pictures unfinished after the manner of Giordano and Solimene, was by many carried so far, that instead of good paintings, many credulous buyers have purchased execrable sketches. The imitation of these two eminent men carried too far, has produced in our own days pernicious principles, as at an earlier period did the imitation of Michelangiolo, Tintoretto, and even of Raffaello himself, when carried to an extreme. The principal and true reason of this deterioration is to be ascribed generally to the masters of almost all our schools; who, abandoning the guidance of the ancient masters, endeavoured in their ignorance to find some new leader, without considering who he might be, or whither he might lead them. Thus, at every proclamation of new principles, they and their scholars were ready to follow in their train.
In the time of Giordano and Solimene, Niccola Massaro was considered a good landscape painter. He was a scholar of Salvator Rosa, but rather imitated him in design than in colour. In the latter he was insipid, nor even added the accompaniment of figures to his landscapes, but was assisted in that respect by Antonio di Simone, not a finished artist, but of some merit in battle pieces.[[125]] Massaro instructed Gaetano Martoriello, who was a landscape painter of a free style, but often sketching, and his colouring not true to nature. In the opinion of connoisseurs a better style was displayed by Bernardo Dominici, the historiographer, and the scholar of Beych in landscape, a careful and minute painter of Flemish subjects and bambocciate. There were two Neapolitans, Ferraiuoli and Sammartino, who settled in Romagna, and were good landscape painters. In perspective views Moscatiello was distinguished, as we observed, when we spoke of Giordano. In the life of Solimene, Arcangelo Guglielmelli is mentioned as skilled in the same art. Domenico Brandi of Naples, and Giuseppe Tassoni of Rome, were rivals in animal painting. In this branch, and also in flowers and fruits, one Paoluccio Cattamara, who flourished in the time of Orlandi, was celebrated. Lionardo Coccorante, and Gabriele Ricciardelli, the scholar of Orizzonte, were distinguished in seaviews and landscapes, and were employed at the court of King Charles of Bourbon.[[126]]
By the accession of this prince, a munificent patron of the fine arts, wherever he reigned, the Neapolitan School was regenerated and invigorated; employment and rewards awaited the artists; the specimens of other schools were multiplied, and Mengs, who was invited to paint the Royal Family, and a large cabinet picture, laid the foundations of a more solid style, at the same time improving his own fortune, and giving a considerable impulse to art. But the greatest benefit this monarch has conferred on the arts is to be found at Ercolano, where under his orders so many specimens of sculpture and ancient paintings, buried for a long lapse of ages, have been brought to light, and by his direction accurately drawn and engraved, and illustrated with learned notes, and communicated to all countries. Lastly, in order that the benefits which he had conferred on his own age, might be continued to the future masters of his country, he turned his attention to the education of youthful artists. Of this fact I was ignorant at the time of my first edition, but now write on the information afforded me at the request of the Marchese D. Francesco Taccone, treasurer of the kingdom, by the very learned Sig. Daniele, Regio Antiquario, both of whom, with truly patriotic feelings, have devoted themselves to the preservation of the antiquities of their country, and are equally polite in communicating to others that information for which they are themselves so distinguished. There formerly existed at Naples the academy of S. Luke, founded at the Gesù Nuovo, in the time of Francesco di Maria, who was one of the masters, and taught in it anatomy and design. This institution continued for some years. King Charles in some measure revived this establishment by a school for painting, which he opened in the Laboratory of mosaics and tapestry. Six masters of the School of Solimene were placed there as directors, and some good models being provided in the place, young artists were permitted to attend and study there. Bonito was engaged as the acting professor, and after some time Mura was associated with him, but died before the professor. Ferdinand IV. treading in the steps of his august father, has, by repeated instances of protection to these honorable pursuits, conferred fresh honours on the Bourbon name, and rendered it dearer than ever to the fine arts. He transferred the academy to the new royal Museum, and supplied it with all requisites for the instruction of young artists. On the death of Bonito he bestowed the direction of it on the first masters, and having established pensions for the maintenance in Rome of a certain number of young men, students in the three sister arts, he assigned four of these to those students who were intended for painters; thus confirming by his suffrage to the city of Rome, that proud appellation which the world at large had long conceded to her, the Athens of Modern Art.
[121] Cortona had in Sicily a good scholar in Gio. Quagliata, who, in the Memorie Messinesi, is said to have been favored and distinguished by his master; and to have afterwards returned to his native country to paint in competition with Rodriguez, and what surprises me still more, with Barbalunga. If we may be allowed to judge of these two artists by their works which remain in Rome, Barbalunga in S. Silvestro at Monte Cavallo, appears a great master; Quagliata at the Madonna di C. P. a respectable scholar. The former is celebrated and known to every painter in Rome, the latter has not an admirer. In Messina he perhaps painted better. His biographer commends him as a graceful and sober painter, as long as his rivals lived; and adds, that after their death he devoted himself to frescos, when the exuberance of his imagination is evident in the strong expression of character, and in the superfluity of architectural and other ornaments. Andrea, his brother, was not in Rome; he is, however, in Messina, considered a good artist.
[122] Giordano is said at this period to have copied the Chambers and the Gallery of Raffaello no less than twelve times, and perhaps twenty times the Battle of Constantine, painted by Giulio Romano, without reckoning his designs after the works of Michelangiolo, Polidoro, and other great masters. See Vite del Bellori, edited in Rome in 1728, with the addition of the life of Giordano, page 307.
[123] It may be observed, that if he had followers, some of them did not copy him implicitly. Palomino, although much attached to Giordano, forsaking letters for painting, when his style was so much in vogue, did not imitate him servilely, but in conjunction with the style of other distinguished painters of his age; a good artist, and appointed by Charles II. painter to himself. This is the same Palamino who has merited the appellation of the Vasari of Spain, and whom I have so often cited. They who are acquainted with that noble language highly commend his style, which is perhaps the reason that copies of his Teorica e Pratica della Pittura (2 vol. fol.) are so rare out of Spain. But in point of accuracy, like Vasari himself, he often errs. I fancy that he frequently adopted traditions, without sufficiently weighing them, which I am led to suspect from the circumstance that in the scholars assigned to masters, he is guilty of many anachronisms.
[124] The Memorie de' Messinesi Pittori mentions a Gio. Porcello, who, after studying under Solimene, returned, it is said, to his native country, where he found the art at an extremely low ebb; and he attempted to revive it by opening an academy in his house, and diffusing the taste of his master, which he fully possessed. A still better style of painting was brought from Rome by Antonio and Paolo, two brothers, who, fresh from the school of Maratta, also opened an academy in Messina, which was greatly frequented. They worked in conjunction in many churches, and excelled in fresco, but in oil Antonio was much superior to his brother. There was also a third brother, Gaetano, who executed the ornamental parts. Their works on the walls and on canvass are to be seen in S. Caterina di Valverde, in S. Gregorio delle Monache, and elsewhere. There flourished at the same time with the Filocami, Litterio Paladino, and Placido Campolo, a scholar of Conca in Rome, where he derived more benefit from the antique marbles than from the instructions of his master. Both these artists executed works on a very large scale; and of the first they particularly commend the vault of the church of Monte Vergine, and, of the second, the vault of the gallery of the Senate. Both are esteemed for their correct design; but the taste of the second is more solid and more free from mannerism. The above named five artists all died in the fatal year of 1743. Luciano Foti survived them, an excellent copyist of every master, but particularly of Polidoro, whose style he adopted in his own composition. But his characteristic merit consisted in his penetration into the secrets of the art, which enabled him to detect every style, every peculiar varnish, and the various methods of colouring, so that he not only ascertained many doubtful masters, but restored pictures, damaged by time, in so happy a manner as to deceive the most experienced. A man of such talents outweighs a host of common artists.
To these we may add other artists of the island itself, born in different places. Marcantonio Bellavia, a Sicilian, who painted in Rome, at S. Andrea delle Fratte, is conjectured, though not ascertained, to be a scholar of Cortona. Calandrucci, of Palermo, is named among the scholars of Maratta. Gaetano Sottino painted the vault of the oratory at the Madonna di C. P., a respectable artist. Giovacchino Martorana, of Palermo, was a machinist, and in his native city they boast of the Chapel de' Crociferi, and at S. Rosalia, four large pictures from the life of S. Benedict. Olivio Sozzi, of Catania, painted much in Palermo; particularly at S. Giacomo, where all the altars have pictures by him, and the tribune three large subjects from the infancy of Christ. Another Sozzi, of the name of Francesco, I find praised for a picture of Five Saints, Bishops of Agrigentum, in the Duomo of that city. Of Onofrio Lipari, of Palermo, there are two pictures of the Martyrdom of S. Oliva in the Church de' Paolotti. Of Filippo Randazzo, there are to be seen in Palermo some vast works in fresco, as well as of Tommaso Sciacca, who was an assistant of Cavalucci in Rome, and who left some large compositions at the Duomo and at the Olivetani of Rovigo.