EPOCH I.
The Ancients.
Next in order to the school of Modena, I rank that of Parma and its state; and I should very gladly have united them together, as other writers have done, if in addition to the distinction of dominions there did not also exist an evident distinction in point of taste. For it appears to me, as I have before had occasion to observe, that in the former of these cities the imitation of Raffaello prevailed; in the second that of Coreggio. This last indeed is the founder of the School of Parma, which preserved a series of disciples for several generations, so strongly attached to his examples as to bestow no attention upon any other model. The situation in which he found the city on his first arrival, is apparent from the ancient figures scattered throughout, which by no means discover a progress in the art of painting equal to that of many other cities in Italy. Not that this arose from any want of acquaintance with the arts of design; for there flourished there as early as the 12th century an artist named Benedetto Antelani, of whom a basso-relievo, representing the Crucifixion of our Lord, is in the cathedral, which, though the production of a rude age, had nothing in sculpture equal to it that I have been able to meet with, until the period of Giovanni Pisano. Respecting the art of painting, the celebrated Father Affò has extracted very interesting notices from published documents and MSS., in order to shew, that before 1233, both figures and historical pieces had been painted in Parma.[11] Upon the completion of the baptismal font, about 1260, that assemblage of paintings was there executed, which may now be regarded as one of the finest remaining monuments of the ancient manner that upper Italy has to boast. The subjects are in the usual taste of those times; the style is less angular and rectilinear than that of the Greek mosaicists;[e] and displays some originality in the draperies, in the ornamental parts, and in the composition. Above all, it shews very skilful mechanism in regard to gilding and colouring, which, notwithstanding the distance of five centuries, retain much of their original strength.
Down from that period there appear in several places, both at Piacenza and Parma, further specimens of the Trecentisti, sometimes with annexed dates, and sometimes without any. Such as belong to Piacenza, are in the church and cloister of the Predicatori; but the best preserved of all is an altar-piece at San Antonio Martire, with histories of the titular saint in small figures, tolerably well drawn, and in costume which seems to have been borrowed, as it were, from some municipal usages peculiar to the place. Parma, likewise, possesses some of the same date, besides a few others remaining at San Francesco, in a somewhat more polished style, attributed to Bartolommeo Grossi, or to Jacopo Loschi, his son-in-law, both of whom were employed there in 1462. Subsequent to these flourished Lodovico da Parma, a pupil of Francia, whose Madonnas, executed in his master's manner, are easily recognized in Parma; and a Cristoforo Caselli (not Castelli, as he is termed by Vasari,) or Cristoforo Parmense, enumerated by Ridolfi among the pupils of Gian Bellino. He produced a very beautiful painting for the hall of the Consorziali, bearing the date of 1499; and he is much commended by Grappaldo in his work De partibus Ædium, who next to him ranks Marmitta, of whom there is no authentic specimen remaining. Still his name ought to be recorded, were it for no other reason than his being the supposed master of Parmigianino. Along with these we may mention Alessandro Araldi, one of the scholars of Bellini, of whom there remains a Nunziata, at the Padri del Carmine, with his name, besides altar-pieces in different churches. He was indisputably a good artist in the mixed manner, that is now called antico moderno. The family of the Mazzuoli was much employed about the same period in Parma, consisting of three brother artists, Michele and Pierilario, falsely supposed to have been the first masters of Coreggio, and Filippo, called dalle Erbette, from succeeding better in fruits and flowers than in figure pieces. There remains an altar-piece of Pierilario in the Sacristy of Santa Lucia, executed in a method very superior to that of the "Baptism of Christ," painted for the baptismal font by his brother Filippo. But, however inferior to his other brothers in this line himself, Filippo may be pronounced at least more fortunate in his posterity, being the father of Parmigianino, whom we have so lately had occasion to commend.
Yet the two most excellent of the Mazzuoli could not, any more than their contemporaries, have been considered artists upon a great scale, when the Padri Cassinensi, instead of availing themselves of their services to decorate the tribune and cupola of their magnificent temple, dedicated to St. John, preferred inviting Antonio Allegri da Coreggio, a foreigner and a youth, to undertake the immense task; a choice which may be said to have conferred a lasting obligation upon posterity. For Coreggio, like Raffaello, stood in need of some extensive undertaking in order to bring his powers into full play, and to open a new path for labours upon a grand scale, as he had before done in those of a smaller class. But of an artist who forms an era in Italian painting itself, not in this particular school only, it becomes us to treat, as well as of his imitators, in a separate chapter.
[11] The notices of the artists of Parma communicated by him to the public, are in part contained in the Life of Parmigianino, and partly in a humorous little work, entitled Il Parmigiano servitor di Piazza; and some further information on this subject I have myself received from the lips of this learned ecclesiastic.
SCHOOL OF PARMA.
EPOCH II.
Coreggio, and those who succeeded him in his School.