[13] "It almost drives me mad with grief to think of the wretchedness of poor Antonio; to think that so great a man, if he were not an angel in human shape, should be thus lost in a country which could not appreciate him, and though with a reputation reaching to the skies, destined to die in such a place so unhappily." In a letter to Lodovico, written from Parma, 1580, (Malvas. vol. i. p. 366). Annibal likewise exaggerated, because the Padri Benedettini, as well as others, were aware of the value of Antonio.
[14] There is a document existing in the same archives, where Francesco Mantegna binds himself to ornament the outside of the church. It may thus be conjectured, that the picture of the Ascension, placed over the gateway, is from his hand, while the Madonna, evidently from another, is the work of Coreggio. The master, in executing his commissions, often employed his pupil or his assistant.
[15] This excellent judge of art, more particularly in point of engravings, and also extremely skilful in portraits drawn with the pen, departed this life at the beginning of 1802.
[16] Thus conjectures Tiraboschi, with arguments that prove the fact rather than shew its probability.
[17] Ortensio Landi, in his Observations, had put on record that Coreggio died young, without seeing Rome. Tiraboschi.
[18] Tiraboschi, p. 257, gives a different account of it, and appears to confound the original with the copy, which for a long time has been placed on the altar, also considerably defaced and discoloured. Respecting this picture, likewise, we hope we shall be better informed by the Dottor Antonioli, to whom we here confess our obligations for much information inserted in this chapter, obtained from his own mouth upon the spot.
[19] These two saints had already been withdrawn from the altar, (Tiraboschi, p. 253,) nor does a copy of them remain at San Francesco. That made by Boulanger is in the convent, and was evidently produced in haste, and upon a bad ground; hence it is neither very exact, nor in good preservation. It is, nevertheless, valuable as throwing light upon Coreggio's history, and his different styles; while it also tends to prove, that if the ancona was made of wood, the picture was made portable, and painted on canvass.
[20] Tiraboschi was unable to discover any certain work from the hand of Antonio, between the years 17 and 20, of the same age. This gave rise to the assertion of Vasari's annotator, that he remained in Rome in quality of Raffaello's pupil during this interval, and on his master's death, in 1520, returned to Lombardy. Such a supposition becomes utterly void, after the above epochs adduced by us.
[21] It is worth notice, that Ratti, persuaded of Coreggio's residence at Rome, has availed himself of the argument of certain figures being borrowed by him from the Judgment, before Michel Angiolo had painted it. Equally valid is his conjecture, founded upon several figures of Raffaello's, which he detected in Coreggio, as if these two artists had never studied from the same book of nature. Such an opinion is asserted also by Padre della Valle, cited in our second volume, p. 121. But writers will always be liable to these mistakes, as long as they pretend to make discoveries and throw light upon ancient facts, without adhering to historical dates, and in their conjectures rather consult novelty and their own vanity than truth. But this fault, brought into vogue about the middle of the eighteenth century, has produced no little evil, both in letters and religion, and surely cannot continue to receive encouragement at this enlightened period. Let us rather trust, that the love of truth, never altogether extinguished, will resume its former influence in the investigation of historical points, and that one of its leading objects will be to free both sacred and profane history from those foolish sophisms that so much obscure it.
[22] This is an expression of Annibal Caracci. Elsewhere he observes: "This kind of delicacy and purity, which is rather truth itself than verisimilitude, pleases me greatly. It is neither artificial nor forced, but quite natural."