In the progress of the present history, the reader may probably have observed, that no distinction had yet been made between certain species of painting, previous to the sixteenth century. The figurist copied every thing, and availed himself of every thing to adorn his compositions; landscapes, animals, fruits, flowers, and perspective, were all employed as accessaries in favour of the leading art; the execution of which was about as difficult to the great masters as the throne of Jupiter to Phidias, after having completed the figure of the god. By degrees, however, they began to separate, and to treat these parts of painting severally. The Flemish were among the first, who, pursuing the bent of their genius, selected the respective branches, and composed pictures, in which, landscape for example, became the principal object, while the figure in its turn became an accessary. And we may here remark, with Bellori, that "the best of these artists dipped their pencil in those fine Venetian colours;" by no means one of the least boasts of the Venetian School. The Italians, likewise, attended severally to these branches of the art, and in particular to landscapes. It was Titian who opened the true path to our landscape painters; although nearly the whole of his champaign scenery was introduced in aid of his figures; never the contrary. One of these, consisting of a Holy Family, was in possession of the Duchess of Massa and Carrara, lately deceased, who left it as a legacy to the Prince Carlo Albani, of Milan. It is one of the most beautiful of the kind I ever saw. Titian was imitated by many Flemish artists; and among the Venetians by Gio. Maria Verdizzotti, one of his literary friends, who painted under his direction several landscapes, much esteemed in different collections, where they are rarely to be seen.
The Bassani produced examples of small pictures of quadrupeds and birds, which consisting of copies taken from those seen in their histories, are easily recognized. They are not so numerous, however, as their history pieces; nor do I recollect having seen specimens of them except in the Venetian state. In drawing fish, an artist of the name of Genzio or Gennesio Liberale, a native of Friuli, has been mentioned with praise by Vasari, and afterwards by Ridolfi.
A taste for grotesque, was introduced into Venice from Rome, by a citizen of the republic, recorded by me elsewhere as the master of this kind of art. His name was Morto da Feltro, who, in the company of Giorgione, employed himself in Venice, though without leaving any traces of his hand. There are specimens of grotesque, in the Ducal Palace, painted by Batista Franco, who had likewise beheld ancient examples of them at Rome. There were others painted for the Patriarch of Aquileja, his patron, by Giovanni di Udine, mentioned by Vasari under the names of Manni and Ricamatore; an artist very celebrated in his line, and almost unique in drawing every kind of birds, quadrupeds, fruits, and flowers. I have included him in the school of Giorgione; and he is stated more at length in that of Raffaello; for he remained but little while with his first master, and in Upper Italy; but longer in Rome, and during some time in Florence. His pictures of birds, or fruits, executed in oil, are pointed out in different collections, though, if I mistake not, they are not all genuine. It is not, indeed, that he produced no specimens in oil, although it is extremely difficult to discover any that are certain; nor that he was incapable of drawing larger figures than such as we see in his satyrs, in his boys, and nymphs, with which he diversified the little landscapes and the tracery of his grotesques. Vasari mentions some of his standards, one of which, executed in Udine, for the Fraternity of Castello, presents in rather large proportions, a blessed virgin with the divine child, and an angel making her an offering of the same castle. The original, though much defaced, still exists, and there is also a copy in the chapel, executed by Pini in 1653. There likewise remains in the archiepiscopal palace, a chamber containing, among some grotesques, two scriptural histories, drawn in half-length figures, not so perfect as the ornamental part, but valuable from their rarity. His other productions, both in Udine and the state, have been enumerated in a learned letter written by the Ab. Boni, upon the standard or gonfalone, just described. If we might hazard a conjecture relative to the school of Giovanni and of Feltro, we should be inclined to give for a pupil to one of these, Giorgio Bellunese, an artist, as we are informed by Cesarini, "very excellent in friezes and in minute ornaments," and moreover an able portrait painter. He flourished at San Vito, a place in the Friuli, about the middle of the sixteenth century; so that the time, the place, and his employment in ornamental work, seem equally to favour our opinion.
The art of architectural design received great assistance in Venice during this period, from the works of Sansovino, Palladio, and other consummate architects, who gave finished examples of magnificent edifices; while Daniel Barbaro composed very useful treatises upon perspective; and it became an attribute of the art to feign colonnades, galleries, and rich cornices, for those halls in which real architecture would not admit of them. In this, Cristoforo and Stefano Rosa more particularly distinguished themselves. They were from Brescia, very intimate with Titian, and merited the honour of being employed by him, in his architectural ornaments for several of his pieces. In Brescia, in Venice, and particularly in the anti-chamber to the library of S. Mark, we may meet with some of their perspectives, so admirably executed as to surprise us by their air of majesty, cheating the eye by their relief; and when beheld in different points of view, always producing a good effect. Their school continued to flourish during many years, in their native state; and was subsequently supported by Bona, excellent also in figures, as well as by other artists. Boschini bestows many commendations upon it in different parts of his work in verse; and in particular at p. 225, where he declares, that Brescia was the source of this art; which applies of course to the Venetian state.
Finally, the art of mosaic work, in stone and coloured glass, at that time, attained such a degree of perfection in Venice, that Vasari observed with surprise, "that it would not be possible to effect more with colours."[[76]] The church and portico of S. Mark remains an invaluable museum of the kind; where, commencing with the eleventh century, we may trace the gradual progress of design belonging to each age up to the present, as exhibited in many works in mosaic, beginning from the Greeks, and continued by the Italians. They chiefly consist of histories from the Old and New Testament, and at the same time furnish very interesting notices relating to civic and ecclesiastical antiquity. A portion of the most ancient specimens had long either perished, or fallen into decay, and it had been resolved to substitute fresh ones in their place. It is not improbable, that after the year 1400, upon the revival of painting, a desire prevailed to banish the taste of the Greeks; and certain it is, that in the mosaics of that age we meet with the modern antique style, the same as in regard to pictures. It will be enough to cite the chapel of the Mascoli, decorated by Michele Zambono with histories of the life of the virgin, executed with extraordinary care, and designed in the best taste of the Vivarini.
The same taste prevailed in the time of Titian; and to this he gave a renewed spirit, and even furnished several of these artists with designs. Marco Luciano Rizzo and Vincenzo Bianchini are the first, who, about 1517, succeeded in a complete reform of the art. To the last is referred that celebrated Judgment of Solomon, which adorns the portico, or vestibule. Both these, however, were surpassed by Francesco and Valerio Zuccati of Treviso, or rather of the Valtelline, sons of the same Sebastian who initiated Titian in the first rudiments of the art. Of these, likewise, there appears in the portico a San Marco, among various prophets and doctors, and with two histories that may be pronounced the best mosaic works, produced during the age of painting. I have seen altarpieces for churches, and pictures for private ornament, in the same taste. The Royal Gallery at Florence possesses a portrait from life of Cardinal Bembo, worked by Valerio; and a San Girolamo, by Francesco, is known to have been presented by the republic to the court of Savoy. Subsequent to these, whom Vasari erroneously calls sometimes Zuccheri, sometimes Zuccherini, Arminio, a son of Valerio, was in much repute. Nor did this family only possess the art of colouring stone and glass with admirable skill; but they understood the principles of design, more particularly Francesco, who had been a painter before entering upon mosaic works. The family of Bianchini, and the other artists then employed at S. Mark, were not equally well instructed; and, stimulated by feelings of envy, they declared open enmity against the Zuccati, for having assisted with the brush to supply some parts of the design to be executed in mosaic; nor did they fail to cry down the ability of Valerio, to whom it would appear that Titian and his son afforded succour. It would be tedious here to relate the various persecutions, litigations, and losses, owing to this quarrel; the particulars of which were extracted by Zanetti from authentic documents, and minutely described. Enough, that he concludes with extolling the Zuccati, together with Vincenzio Bianchini; to whom, as being acquainted with design, it was sufficient to furnish a rough draught for the intended work. Others were, for the most part, in want of cartoons, and complete paintings, in order to model their mosaic works, and even then they conducted them with skill much inferior to their predecessors. In this list he computes Domenico, the brother, and Gio. Antonio, the son of Vincenzio Bianchini, as well as Bartolommeo Bozza, at one time a pupil, and then an accuser along with the rest, of the Zuccati. In the time of these were first adopted, and practically applied, the works and designs of Salviati and of Tintoretto. The names succeeding these, were Gio. Antonio Marini, a pupil of Bozza, and Lorenzo Ceccato, both admirable artificers; Luigi Gaetano and Jacopo Pasterini, with Francesco Turestio, notices of whom are brought up to the year 1618. They worked after the cartoons of the two Tintoretti, of Palma the younger, of Maffeo Verona, of Leandro Bassano, of Aliense, of Padovanino, of Tizianello, besides several others. About the year 1600 commenced a series of artists less generally known; a list of whose works may be consulted at the close of that very valuable publication, "Della Pittura Veneziana." These last, however, have confined their labours to the decoration of new walls, from modern designs; as since 1610, a decree has been in force against the destruction of ancient mosaic works, in however rude or Greekish a taste; but in case of impending destruction, they were to be removed and restored with care, and afterwards refixed in the same place. By this measure a series of monuments is preserved to posterity, which, in its kind, is quite unique in Italy, and the world.
[41] It is related by Vasari, that Titian was in the habit of painting natural objects from the life, without making any previous design, "a practice adopted for many years by the Venetian painters, by Giorgione, by Palma, by Pordenone, and others who never visited Rome, nor studied other specimens of greater perfection than their own." I know not how far the above writer was acquainted with their method. But their designs are still extant in various collections; and the Cartoon of the celebrated S. Agostino, painted by Pordenone in that city, is now in possession of the Count Chiappini in Piacenza, in good condition.
[42] I made mention elsewhere of P. Federici's supposition, as being at least probable, that F. Sebastiano was the same person as F. Marco Pensaben, a Dominican. The year of their birth is certainly the same. But other dates are too discordant; if, indeed, we are not to suppose that the whole of what Vasari has written of Sebastiano, in his life of him, as well as in those of Sanzio and Peruzzi, is merely fanciful. It is by no means worth our while to draw minute comparisons between the epochs of these two painters. In 1520, we found Pensaben in Venice; next at Trevigi, where he remained till July, 1521. Now Sebastiano, the Venetian, was, at this very period, at Rome. The Car. Giulio de'Medici had committed to Raffaello the picture of the Transfiguration, which having hardly completed, that artist died on Good Friday, 1520; and during the same time, as if in competition with Raffaello, Sebastiano was employed in painting the Resurrection of Lazarus, for the same Cardinal, which, soon after, was exhibited along with the Transfiguration, and then sent into France. More still—he likewise drew the Martyrdom of Santa Agata, for the Cardinal of Aragona; a piece which, in the time of Vasari, was in possession of the Duke of Urbino; then in the Palazzo Pitti at Florence, whence it passed into France. There is the name of Sebastianus Venetus, and the year 1520 affixed to it. This artist therefore can, by no means, be confounded with F. Marco, nor the painting of this last at Trevigi be ascribed to the former. Such a mistaken opinion has been attributed to me by the learned P. Federici; (vol. i. p. 120) but on what ground I know not.
[43] We confess our obligations to Sig. Giuseppe Beltramelli, who informs us, in a work published in 1806, that this painter, generally supposed from Bergamo, was really a Venetian, being thus mentioned in a public contract: M. Laurentius Lottus de Venetiis nunc habitator Bergomi. Father Federici, who, on the strength of some historian, pronounces him of Trevigi, brings forward another document in which Lotto is called: D. Laurentii Lotti pictoris, et de presenti Tarvisii commorantis. If, therefore, habitator Bergomi does not prove him a native of Bergamo, will the words Tarvisii commorantis make him a native of Trevigi? But Father Affò, in one of his earliest pictures, found him entitled Tarvisinus. Who, however, can assure us that it is in fact the handwriting of Lotto, which he there found written?
[44] Thus called by the oldest writers, though, from his father's testament, recently brought to light, it appears to be erroneous. Here his father is entitled, Angelus de Lodesanis de Corticellis, (or in a MS. of the Signori Mottensi of Pordenone de Corticelsis Brixiensis).