We next come to Marco Basaiti, sprung from a Greek family in the Friuli, and a rival also of Giovanni; but more successful than Carpaccio. The church of San Giobbe, here mentioned for the third time, possesses his picture of Christ praying in the Garden, painted in 1510. It is now a little defaced, but has been highly extolled by Ridolfi and others, who beheld it in a more perfect condition. Above all his productions, however, the Vocation of San Pietro to the Apostleship, in the church of the Certosa, is the most celebrated; a piece, of which there is seen a duplicate in the imperial gallery at Vienna. It is certainly one of the most beautiful pictures of that age; and most generally there is no kind of merit in Gian Bellini, in which Basaiti does not either equal, or very closely approach him. Indeed he appears to exhibit even a freer genius, a more happy composition, and a more skilful art in uniting the grounds of his pictures with the figures. These are beautiful, and for the most part incline to the free style; their look is full of fire; the tints of the fleshy parts of a rosy glow; the middle tints inclining sometimes to paleness, but not without grace. Though not a native, he resided a long period at Venice, which contains a good number of his works, a few of which are in the ancient taste, but the most part bordering upon the modern. His native place of Friuli possesses no other specimen besides a Christ taken from the Cross, in the monastery of Sesto, consisting of large figures, with a fine group in the background of the picture, and with a landscape full of nature. In several parts it is defaced by age; but a true connoisseur will still, perhaps, prefer it to the others, for being free from the retouches of modern art.
Among the pupils of Gian Bellini, who were very numerous, are some who ought to be referred to another epoch, like Giorgione, and to different schools, like Rondinello of Ravenna; several, however, take their place here, who, in the opinion of their national contemporaries, did not fully attain to the possession of the new style. The family of the heads of the school, produced also a Bellin Bellini, who being educated in that academy, very happily imitated its manner. He painted Madonnas for private individuals, which, their author being little known, are for the most part attributed to Gentile, or to Giovanni. The artist who is mentioned by Vasari as the pupil of Giovanni, named Girolamo Mocetto, was one of the earliest and least polished among his disciples. He did not reach the sixteenth century; and left behind him some engravings upon copper, now become extremely rare; besides small pictures, one of which, subscribed with the author's name, in 1484, is in the possession of the before mentioned house of Corer. The Veronese, who are in possession of his portrait, amongst those of the painters of their town, in the Scuola del Nudo, can also boast one of his altarpieces, bearing the name and date of 1493, in their church of S. Nazario e Celso. Such information I obtained from Signor Saverio dalla Rosa, a Veronese painter of merit. Another less distinguished, and somewhat stiff scholar or imitator of Bellini, has affixed his name in several places, at the foot of sacred figures, as follows: "Marcus Martialis Venetus;" and in a Purificazione, existing in the Conservatory of the Penitents, we meet with the year 1488. And from a Supper of Emmaus, belonging to the family of the Contarini, with the painter's name, we learn that in the year 1506 he was still alive.
An artist of a better taste appeared in Vincenzio Catena, a wealthy citizen, who obtained a good deal of celebrity by his portraits and pictures for private rooms. His masterpiece consists of a Holy family, in the style of Giorgione, ornamenting the noble Pesaro gallery; and if he had produced nothing more than this, he would no longer be included in the present epoch; but his other pieces, exhibiting more traces of the old style, which remain at San Maurizio, at San Simeone Grande, at the Carità, and elsewhere, authorise our enumeration of them here. They are beautiful; but not sufficiently in the modern taste. His reputation, however, while living, was so great, that in a letter written by Marc Antonio Michiel from Rome, to Antonio di Marsilio in Venice, dated 11th of April, 1520, when Raffaello was just deceased and Buonarotti infirm, it is recommended to Catena to be upon his guard, "since danger seems to be impending over all very excellent painters."[[32]] One Giannetto Cordegliaghi enjoyed also a high reputation, if he be rightly named by Vasari, who commends him for his soft and delicate manner, superior to many of his contemporaries; adding, that he had produced an infinite number of pictures for private persons. In Venice he is termed, I suppose for the sake of brevity, Cordella; and to him is attributed the beautiful portrait of the Cardinal Bessarione in the college of La Carità, with a few other specimens, the rest having dropt into oblivion. Probably his real name was double, Cordella Aghi. It is certain that Zanetti read, upon a beautiful Madonna, belonging to the learned Zeno, Andreas Cordelle Agi, F. This last is of the same family as Giannetto; or perhaps also in place of Giannetto, Vasari ought to have written Andrea; as instead of Jacopo he ought to have said Francesco Squarcione. Nor can it be denied, that if we except the artists of Verona and Friuli, this historian was deficient in information, as he himself declares, relating to the Venetian School. It is sufficient to turn to his proëmium of the life of Carpaccio, in order to observe how many times, in a very few lines, he is guilty of making mistakes. Of Lazzaro Sebastiani, he made two painters; two others out of Marco Basaiti, dividing him into Marco Basarini and Marco Bassiti, and assigning to each his several works. Moreover, he wrote Vittore Scarpaccia, Vittor Bellini, Giambatista da Cornigliano, and confounded the labours of all the three together. Elsewhere we meet with Mansuchi for Mansueti; Guerriero and Guarriero, instead of Guariento; Foppa is made into Zoppa, Giolfino into Ursino, Morazone into Mazzone, Bozzato into Bazzacco, Zuccati into Zuccheri and Zuccherini; and thus he continued to blunder through other Lombard and Venetian names, insomuch as almost to vie with Harms, with Cochin, and with similar inaccurate foreigners.
The following names were slightly esteemed or slightly known by Vasari, and therefore omitted in his history: Piermaria Pennacchi of Trevisi, and Pier Francesco Bissolo, a Venetian. Of the former there remain two entablatures, painted for churches, more excellent in point of colouring than design. One is in Venice, the other at Murano. Of these artists, Pier Francesco painted on the least extensive scale, but was more finished and beautiful. His altarpieces in Murano, and in the cathedral of Trevigi, may be put in competition with those of the elder Palma; and one in possession of the family of Renier, representing The Meeting of Simeon, still nearer approaches to the fulness and softness of the moderns.
Girolamo di San Croce was still more deserving of commemoration than these. Yet Vasari omitted him; Boschini is silent on the subject; and Ridolfi has found in him more to blame than to praise, asserting that he had never freed himself from the ancient style, though flourishing at a period when the less celebrated geniuses attempted to modernise their taste. Happily, however, for this distinguished man, not a few of his best labours have been preserved, of which Zanetti has pronounced his opinion that, "he approaches nearer to the manner of Giorgione and Titian, than any of the others." And such commendation is justified by his altarpiece of S. Parisio, so highly mentioned in the Guide of Treviso, and which is to be seen at the church of that saint. In Venice itself there are some of his pictures which display uncommon merit, such as the Supper of our Saviour, with the name of Santa Croce, which is in S. Martino; and a Salvatore, at S. Francesco della Vigna, which though in a precise taste, shows extreme richness of colouring. There also appears, at the same place, his picture of the Martyrdom of S. Lorenzo; a repetition of which is found in the noble house of Collalto, nearly resembling the original, and in other places. It abounds in figures of about a palm's length, imitated, in some part, from the celebrated composition of Bandinelli, engraved by Marc Antonio, whose impressions to Girolamo proved a rich mine of art, affording originals for those small but valuable paintings, meant to adorn private rooms. In none of them, however, was he a mere copyist; he varied the figures, and more especially the landscapes, in which he was a very skilful hand. In this manner he produced many of those Bacchanals, which are to be met with in different collections. In that of the Casa Albani, at Bergamo, is a S. Gio. Elemosinario (almsgiver) in grand architecture, seen among a crowd of paupers; and in the collection of Count Carrara, also at Bergamo, there is a Saviour taken from the Cross, highly valued for the portrait of the artist, which points to a holy cross, the symbol of his name. Not any of these productions are embued with traces of the ancient style. They display a grace of composition, study of foreshortening, and of the naked parts, a harmony of colours, forming a mixture of different schools, in which the Roman predominates, and least of all the Venetian. Further we would refer the reader to what has already been stated at page 57.
To these Venetian professors, or at least, established in Venice, it will be proper to add several educated by Giovanni, in the provinces, and in this way resume the thread of our pictoric history of the state. There was no place in the whole dominion which did not boast either of his disciples or imitators. We shall proceed to treat severally of these, beginning with the name of Conegliano, which he derived from a city in the Marca Trevigiana, his native place, whose mountainous views he has introduced into his paintings, as if to serve for his device.
The artist's name, however, is Giambatista Cima, and his style most resembles the better part of that of Gian Bellini. The professors indeed may often be confounded together, to such a degree do we find Conegliano diligent, graceful, lively in his motions and his colouring, although less smooth than Bellini. Perhaps one of his best pieces that I have seen, is in the cathedral at Parma, though it is omitted in the catalogue of his works. That at the church of Santa Maria dell' Orto, one of the most rich in paintings, in all Venice, possesses less softness; but in point of architecture, in the air of its heads, and in the distribution of its colours, there is something so extremely attractive, that we are never weary of contemplating it. The different collections in Italy, no less than those in other parts, are many of them in possession, or said to be in possession, of specimens from this artist's hand; and if we add to these his altarpieces, sufficiently numerous, they will be found to amount to a very considerable class. We are informed, however, by Padre Federici, that one of Cima's sons, of the name of Carlo, imitated so closely the style of his father, that there are pictures which ought often to be attributed to the former instead of to the latter.
This artist resided but a short time in his own province; and the altarpiece placed by him in the cathedral of his native place, in 1493, is considered a youthful performance. He continued to exercise his art until the year 1517, according to Ridolfi, and died in the maturity of his powers. The date of 1542, which we find at San Francesco di Rovigo placed upon an altarpiece of Conegliano, (if it be not a copy,) marks only the era of the erecting of the altar, which was painted afterwards. He is said by Boschini to have been the tutor of Vittor Belliniano, by Vasari called Bellini; the same who represented in the college of St. Mark's, the martyrdom of the saint. The best portion of this history is the architecture it displays.
The artists, educated in the school of Giovanni, who flourished at Friuli, were two natives of Udine: Giovanni di M. Martino, as he is entitled in some family documents, and Gio. Martini, by Vasari; and Martino d'Udine, who in the Storia Pittorica, is called Pellegrino di S. Daniello. The style of the former was harsh and crude, though not destitute of grace in the countenances and in the colouring. The name of Pellegrino was bestowed upon the latter by Bellini, in honour of his rare genius, while the name of the country was attached to him from his long residence in S. Daniello, a territory not far from Udine. This city is, nevertheless, the place where he appears to most advantage, in competition with Giovanni; as the same emulation they had felt while fellow pupils, continued, as sometimes happens, when they became masters. In that city appear the labours of each, and more particularly in the two chapels contiguous to the dome, where the first of them was employed in the year 1501, the second in 1502. Giovanni, in his altarpiece of St. Mark, there produced the richest specimen which appeared from his hand; and Pellegrino left that of his St. Joseph, preferred by Vasari, in some degree, to the work of Martini. I have seen the last mentioned picture in oil, faded indeed in colour, and in other respects defaced; yet still worthy of admiration for its architecture, which gives a graceful fulness to the whole canvass, and a striking relief to the three figures, consisting of S. Joseph with the holy child in his arms, and S. John the Baptist, each of which displays the finest contours and the best forms. Other specimens of the same pencil are to be seen in Udine, among which are the SS. Agostino and Girolamo, in the public council hall, a picture remarkable also for its power of colouring.
As this artist advanced in age, he improved in the softness of his tints, as well as in every other quality. The altarpiece at Santa Maria de' Battuti, which is in Cividale, and represents the Virgin seated between the four virgins of Aquileja, besides the Saints Batista and Donato, and a cherub, partakes of Giorgione; it is enumerated among the rarest paintings of Friuli, and was executed in the year 1529. Yet above any of his productions, are esteemed those various histories of the life of our Saviour, painted in fresco at S. Daniele, in the church of S. Antonio, together with the titular saint, and several other portraits of the brethren of that chapel, so richly adorned by his hand, all breathing and glowing proofs of his art. By his means, also, one of the pictoric schools of Friuli rose into high repute, and will be elsewhere described.