Pietro Avogadro was a Brescian, and the scholar of Ghiti, who adopted the models of Bologna, imitating them without affectation, adding some mixture of Venetian colour, more particularly in his ruddier fleshes. The contours of his figures are correct, his shortenings pleasing and appropriate, and his compositions very judicious; the whole expressing great harmony and beauty. Next to the three leading artists of this city, he is entitled to the fourth place, at least in the esteem of many. Perhaps his masterpiece is to be seen in the church of San Giuseppe, representing the Martyrdom of the saints Crispino and Crispiniano. Andrea Toresani was also a Brescian, who flourished at the same period; excellent in design, with which he ornamented the cities of Venice and Milan more than his native place. His chief merit, however, lay in an inferior branch, that of painting animals, sea views, and landscapes in the Titian manner, often accompanied with figures in tolerably good taste.
Having taken a hasty view of the other cities of the state, we must dwell some little while on that of Verona, which, from the beginning of the century, until the present time, has enjoyed a high degree of reputation. Though ravaged by the plague, we have already seen how it again flourished, with the aid of other Italian schools, to which we might add that of the French, inasmuch as Louis Dorigny, a Parisian, and pupil of Le Brun, arriving in Italy at an early age, devoted himself to the study of Roman and Venetian models. He established himself at Verona, where, having for some time employed his talents, and obtained several pupils, he died in the year 1742. He also left works behind him in Venice, the most esteemed of which adorns the church of San Silvestro, as well as in other cities, both of the state and of all Italy. He resided likewise with Prince Eugene in Germany.
There was another foreigner, who, about the same period, became a resident at Verona. His name was Simone Brentana, a Venetian, well versed in literature, as well as in the information necessary to form an artist. He devoted himself with extreme assiduity to the works of Tintoretto, whom he emulated in his pictorial enthusiasm, which scarcely permitted him to bestow sufficient time upon the completion of his labours. In his forms and colouring he partakes of the Roman manner of his time, and displays something extremely novel and original in his compositions. His pictures were sought after to adorn the galleries of sovereigns, no less than for private persons. Several are to be met with in the churches of the state, and in that of S. Sebastiano at Verona is one representing the Titular Saint, well drawn, without drapery, in the act of consummating his Martyrdom, while an angel is supporting him in his arms, a figure both in aspect and in attitude extremely graceful. Girolamo Ruggieri, an artist born at Vicenza, was pupil to Cornelio Dusman of Amsterdam, and having established himself at Verona, he there produced several history pieces, landscapes, and battle scenes, in the Flemish style.
Approaching the Veronese artists and their neighbours, some of them will be found to have flourished in the beginning of the century, whose merits deserve to be here recorded. One of these is Alessandro Marchesini, pupil to Cignani, of whom there remains little exhibited in public at Venice, and not much at Verona. He chiefly employed himself for private persons, with fables and histories, consisting of small figures, in which he succeeded, though having addicted himself to these compositions as a trade, he despatched them with more facility than care. In similar little pieces Francesco Barbieri also displayed the most merit, an artist called il Legnago, from his native place. An imitator of Ricchi, and in some measure of Carpioni, he displayed great pictorial enthusiasm in every kind of history, in capricci, and in rural views; but he was inferior in point of design, having applied himself to it too late in life.
Antonio Balestra of Verona was at first devoted to a mercantile life, until at the age of twenty-one, after studying in Venice under Bellucci, and thence passing to Bologna, and afterwards to Rome, under Maratta, he selected the best from every school, uniting a variety of beauties in a style of his own, which partakes least of all of the Venetian. He is an artist of judgment and high finish, well versed in design, of a rapid hand, lively and animated, but always with a solidity of talent that makes us respect him. He taught in Venice and in the college of La Carità, where he painted the Nativity of our Lord, and the Taking down from the Cross, while he competes equally well with the first artists of his time in other places. Commissions from foreign courts and the cities of the state, never allowed him to be idle. He was particularly employed at Padua in an altarpiece for the church del Santo, representing Santa Chiara. He painted also a good deal for his native place; his picture of San Vincenzo at the Domenicans,[[89]] being one of the finest altarpieces he ever produced, and one of the best preserved, for his method of colouring with boiled oils has been found injurious to many of his pieces. Such as he painted, however, in oil less boiled, have better resisted the effects of time. Many of these figures are in possession of the Conti Gazzola, ornamenting one of their halls, and in particular a very beautiful one of Mercury. He promoted the reputation of the Venetian School, both by his lectures and example, besides affording an excellent imitator in Gio. Batista Mariotti, and in his pupil Giuseppe Nogari, a painter of portraits, as well as of half-length figures, held in much esteem, insomuch as to recommend him, for a great length of time, to the service of the court of Turin. In pieces of composition, such as his San Piero, placed in the cathedral of Bassano, he appears a respectable artist, and somewhat ambitious of reconciling his master's style with that of Piazzetta. Another Venetian of the name of Pietro Longhi, first instructed by Balestra, and afterwards by Crespi, aimed at pleasing the eye in collections, by those humourous representations of masks, of conversazioni, landscapes, &c. which we find in various noble houses. Angelo Venturini, also a Venetian, is mentioned in the Guida of Zanetti, for his paintings in the church of Gesù e Maria, of which he adorned the ceiling, and various portions of the walls. Another pupil of Balestra's, in Verona, was Carlo Salis, who approached very near his style, more particularly in the handling of his colours. He prosecuted his first studies in Bologna, under Giuseppe dal Sole. Some of his pictures are also to be met with in the state, such as his San Vincenzio, in the act of administering to the sick at Bergamo, a piece finely mellowed, and more than commonly spirited. An artist named Cavalcabò, a native of a district in Roveredo, was instructed by Balestra, and afterwards by Maratta. In the choir of the Carmine at his native place, he left behind him a very beautiful altarpiece, representing the Holy Simone Stoch, with four lateral pieces of great merit. For a more particular account of these and other works by this artist, we may refer the reader to his life, written by the Cavalier Vannetti.
The whole of the names, however, we have here mentioned, scarcely excepting that of Balestra himself, have been thrown into the shade by the talent of the Conte Pietro Rotari. He was honoured with the title of painter to her court, by the empress of all the Russias, and in her dominions he closed the period of his days. This very elegant artist, who devoted many years to the art of design, succeeding in attaining a grace of feature, a delicacy of outline, united to a vivacity of motion and expression, and to a natural and easy mode of drapery, that would have left him second to none of his age, had he possessed, in an equal degree of perfection, the art of colouring. But his productions often partake so much of the chiaroscuro, or at least of a strong ash colour, as to render them remarkable among all. Some, indeed, have attributed this defect to want of clearness of sight, while others conjecture it must have been owing to his long practice in design, previous to his attempting colours, in the same manner as Polidoro da Caravaggio and the Cavalier Calabrese are known to have failed as colourists, falling like him into a weak and languid tone. The education he received from Balestra may also have tended to produce it, as both he and the disciples of Maratta were somewhat addicted to a certain duskiness of style, which we may particularly observe in several examples seen at Naples, where he resided for some time. Whatever it be owing to, there still prevails a repose and harmony in that melancholy expression of his colouring, that is far from unpleasing, in particular where he affords somewhat warmer touches to his tints. This he appears to have done in his picture of a Nunziata at Guastalla, in that of San Lodovico in the church del Santo at Padua, and in a Nativity of the Virgin at San Giovanni, in the same city. This last specimen, indeed, is almost unequalled in its attractions, and seems to authorize the praises bestowed upon Rotari by a poet, "that he resembled his fellow citizen Catullus in being nursed by the Graces," a species of eulogy applicable also to Balestra and to other Veronese artists.
Santo Prunati was contemporary with Marchesini and Balestra, and after receiving the instructions of Voltolino and Falcieri in Verona, he attended those of Loth in Venice. Better to acquire superior correctness and dignity of manner, he next proceeded to Bologna. In that school he found the taste in colouring that he wanted, at once soft and natural. In the design, and in the expression of his heads, he displays more of the naturalist, if I mistake not, than any of those who preceded him. He was engaged also for larger compositions, in which he distinguished himself, both in his own district and elsewhere, and left behind him a son named Michelangiolo, who pursued, as far as lay in his power, the footsteps of his father. In the cathedral of Verona, however, is one of his pictures, placed near the San Francesco di Sales of his father, which serves to mark the wide difference that exists between them.
In the same school, along with Michelangiolo, studied Gio. Bettino Cignaroli, an artist instructed also by Balestra. Until about the year 1770 he ranked among the first of his time, receiving very flattering invitations from foreign courts, to which he invariably preferred the convenience of his own house and country. The prices he was in the habit of attaching to his works, were, nevertheless, those of a court painter; and many were executed for the principal royal galleries, as well as for the cities of the state, and those of other parts of Italy; but which, we must admit, are by no means of equal merit. I omit his paintings in fresco, on account of his having abandoned that branch of the art, owing to his state of health, while yet young, though not until he had afforded specimens of his powers in the noble house of Labia at Venice, during a four years' residence there. It is his pictures in oil, of which we here speak, and to which he owed his great reputation. The one at Pontremoli, however, representing, as it is said, a San Francesco in the act of receiving the marks of Christ, and extremely well executed, I have not seen. His San Zorzi at Pisa stands conspicuous among a number of excellent pencils, all employed in the ornament of that single cathedral. Perhaps his finest is his Journey into Egypt, seen at San Antonio Abate in Parma. In this he has represented the Virgin with the Holy Child, in the act of passing a narrow bridge, while S. Joseph appears engaged in assisting them to cross it in safety. In the countenance and whole action of the saint, his anxiety for them is strongly depicted, which is beautifully expressed by his disregarding a part of his mantle, fallen from his shoulders into the water below, an image equally skilful and natural in every point of view. The rest of the picture is also in his best style. The angels in attendance, the Divine Infant, the Holy Virgin, all drawn, as he so well knew how, with a sedate and dignified beauty, in the usual manner of Maratta. In some points, indeed, Cignaroli much resembled him; in certain attitudes, in a peculiar sobriety of composition, in a certain choice and vicinity of colours, though not in their just and equal tone. His fleshes, too much mannered with green, in a few places touched with red, render his colouring less agreeable to admirers of what is true, while his chiaroscuro, sometimes sought for beyond the limits of nature, is apt to produce an effect in his paintings, not so pleasing to the judgment as to the eye. He often displays novelty in the individual parts, availing himself of architecture, of sea views, and of landscape, in a manner above common; besides introducing into his compositions, for the most part of a scriptural character, the playful figures of cherubims, with other enlivening incidents. This artist was indisputably possessed of a fine genius, and born in times favourable to the eminence he enjoyed. Memoirs of him were collected and published by the celebrated Padre Bevilacqua dell'Oratorio in the year 1771, and eulogies were pronounced upon him both in prose and verse, by a number of literary characters connected with that city, so highly polished and so grateful to such of its citizens as reflect honour upon their native place. A collection of these was subsequently made, and put forth in the year 1772, and from such publications it would appear that few artists had received equal honours, during their lifetime, from the great, particularly from the Emperor Joseph II., who was used to declare, "that he had beheld two very rare sights in Verona—one the Amphitheatre, and the other the most celebrated painter in Europe." He appears, likewise, to have been an artist of great learning, as well as fond of conversing with learned men; he was acquainted with philosophical systems, wrote Tuscan poetry, relished the Roman classics, besides producing treatises upon his own art, written with so much taste and sound judgment, that we have only to regret, for the sake of the art he loved, the too sparing use he made of such talents. The academy, on which he bestowed the whole of his works upon Painting, after his decease, still preserves his bust along with his eulogy, a farther honour conferred upon him by the liberality of his country. He left several pupils, among whom Giandomenico, his brother, produced some paintings in Bergamo that have been commended by Pasta. The Padre Felice Cignaroli, Minore Osservante, is an artist likewise worthy of mention. He painted little, and his masterpiece appears in the refectory of San Bernardino, his convent at Verona, consisting of a Supper of Emmaus, in which, though less studied, he displays no less invention than his brothers.
Next to these, who escaped oblivion as belonging to the family of Cignaroli, an artist named Giorgio Anselmi deserves best to be put upon record, and in particular for his painting of the Cupola of San Andrea at Mantua, ably executed in fresco: at one time he was the pupil of Balestra. Marco Marcola was an almost universal artist, rapid in his labours, abundant in his inventions, though I am unable to learn who had been his master. Tiepolo gave instructions to Francesco Lorenzi, distinguished both for his frescos and his oils, and always by his adherence to his master's example. There are various ceilings painted by his hand in Verona, and Brescia presents a Holy Family, all of which display an able artist, according to the manner of the age.
In inferior branches of the art, there flourished, during this period, professors of much repute. The art of drawing in crayons rose to a high degree of excellence, through the genius of a distinguished lady of the name of Rosalba Carriera,[[90]] whose paintings in miniature have been highly commended by Orlandi. She next proceeded to the use of oils, but finally devoted her talents to that of crayons. So great was her progress in this branch that her specimens in point of force were often equal to oil pieces. They were in much request from the period in which she flourished, both in Italy and other parts; nor did they merely please by their clearness and beauty of colouring, but were remarkable for the grace and dignity of design, with which she animated every thing she drew. Her Madonnas and other scriptural subjects at once unite elegance and majesty of manner, while her portraits continued to increase in value without losing any thing of their truth. We meet with another excellent portrait paintress in Niccola Grassi, pupil to Cassana, of Genoa, and a rival of Rosalba. Nor was she unequal to works of invention, one of the most extensive of which adorns the church of San Valentino in Udine, where she painted the Assumption in the ceiling, a fine piece on the large altar, and drew figures for other pictures of various saints belonging to the Order of the Serviti. Pietro Uberti, son of Domenico, an artist of mediocrity, is celebrated in the Guida of Zanetti for his portraits, of which he produced eight, representing the Avogadori of his times, for the Avogaria or courthouse, which was considered a very honourable commission, bestowed formerly upon Paolo de' Freschi, Domenico Tintoretto, Tinelli, Bombelli, artists all celebrated in the same career. Orlandi bestows great commendation upon Gio. Batista Canziani of Verona, distinguished likewise in this branch, and who, on being banished from his native place for an act of homicide, continued to exercise it with success in Bologna.