Of Euclide Trotti, before-mentioned, there remains in his native place no work clearly ascertained to be his, except two history-pieces of St. James the Apostle, at S. Gismondo. These too were sketched by Calvi, and completed by Euclide, with a very able imitation of his uncle Gio. Batista's style. The altar-piece of the Ascension, however, at S. Antonio, in Milan, is wholly ascribed to him; and displays much beauty, and a more serious manner than is generally to be met with in the works of the elder Malosso. No other painting is attributed to him, nor was he capable of executing many. For while yet young, he was tried and found guilty of felony against the prince. Being thrown into prison, he is there supposed to have died by poison, which was administered by his friends, in order to avoid the disgrace of a public execution. In conclusion, we must not omit the name of Panfilo Nuvolone. He was attached to Malosso, whom he imitated from the outset; but he afterwards followed a more solid and less attractive style. One of his works, which is omitted in the account of his life, is his S. Ubaldo giving his benediction to the sick, at S. Agostino, in Piacenza. Mention will be made of this painter also in the Milanese School, where he flourished, together with his two sons, Giuseppe and Carlo, who obtained the appellation of the Guido of Lombardy.
SCHOOL OF CREMONA.
EPOCH IV.
Foreign Manners introduced into Cremona.
Among the descendants of Malosso the Cremonese School continued to decline; and here, as in the instance of so many others, it was compelled to resort to foreign sources, in order to restore its somewhat aged and exhausted powers. Carlo Picenardi, of a patrician family, was the first to lead the way, an artist who had ranked among the favourite pupils of Lodovico Caracci. He was very successful in burlesque histories, and likewise exhibited to the public some of his paintings, executed for churches, which were imitated by another Carlo Picenardi, called the younger, who had formed his style in Venice and at Rome. Other artists of the city attached themselves to other schools, insomuch, that before the middle of the seventeenth century many new manners had arisen which assumed the place of more native styles. In the train of Malosso Zaist enumerates Pier Martire Neri, or Negri, a good portrait-painter and composer, though, adds the historian, he procured from a foreign source a character of more boldness and strength of shadow, at the same time adducing as an instance, his great picture of the Man born Blind receiving his sight from our Saviour, which is preserved at the hospital of Cremona. He painted likewise a S. Giuseppe at the Certosa, in Pavia, a work which, if I mistake not, is superior in point of taste to the former, and there are others to be met with in Rome, where the artist's name is found among the academicians of S. Luke.
Andrea Mainardi opened school simultaneously with Malosso; and two of his pupils, Gio. Batista Tortiroli and Carlo Natali, became particularly distinguished. Both abandoned their native place, Gio. Batista going first to Rome and thence to Venice, where he formed a style which partakes most of the younger Palma, united to an evident imitation of Raffaello. Such it appears in his picture of the Slaughter of the Innocents, at S. Domenico, commendable in point of composition, and extremely well coloured. This, and a few other productions, are regarded however only as specimens of his powers, the artist dying in his thirtieth year, leaving behind him a pupil of the name of Gio. Batista Lazzaroni. This last flourished at Piacenza and in Milan, was an excellent portrait-painter, and much employed by the princes of Parma and other personages of high rank. Carlo Natali, surnamed Il Guardolino, attended the school of Mainardi, and afterwards that of Guido Reni, to which he added a long residence at Rome and Genoa, observing all that was most valuable, and exerting his own talents in the art. It was while engaged in executing a frieze in the Doria palace at Genoa, that he instructed Giulio Cesare Procaccini in the principles of painting, who had previously devoted himself to sculpture, and in him he presented us with one of the most successful imitators of Coreggio. Carlo's attachment to architecture, however, permitted him to produce few specimens, which are highly esteemed in his native state, in particular his Santa Francesca Romana, painted for S. Gismondo, a piece, which if not perfect, is certainly above mediocrity.
He had a son named Giambatista, whom he instructed in both these arts; though he was desirous that he should acquire a more perfect knowledge of them under Pietro da Cortona at Rome. There he pursued his studies and left some specimens of altar-pieces, producing works upon a still more extensive scale upon his return to Cremona, where he opened school and introduced the Cortona manner, although with little success. There is a large picture of his at the P. Predicatori, displaying some skilful architecture, and in which the holy patriarch is seen in the act of burning some heretical books; nor is it at all unworthy of a disciple of Pietro. In the archives of the royal gallery at Florence I discovered, at the period I was drawing up my index, some letters addressed by Gio. Batista to the Card. Leopoldo de' Medici, one of which was written from Rome, dated 1674, wherein he states that he was then engaged in collecting notices respecting the artists of his native place. Hence we may gather the real origin of their lives, as contained in the work of Baldinucci, for whom the Cardinal, who patronized him, likewise procured other materials for his history from different places. Had Zaist been informed of this he would rather have directed both his eulogies and his complaints to Natali, than to Baldinucci or his continuator. The pupils of Natali were Carlo Tassone, who became, on the model of Lovino, a painter of portraits, much admired at Turin and other courts; Francescantonio Caneti, afterwards a Capuchin Friar, and a pretty good miniature-painter in his day, and who left a fine painting in the church of his own order at Como; with Francesco Boccaccino, the last of that pictoric family, who died about the year 1760. Having familiarized himself at Rome, first with the school of Brandi, and next with that of Maratta, he acquired a manner that came into some repute in private collections, for which he employed himself more than for churches. He resembles Albano, and was fond of portraying mythological subjects. A few of his altar-pieces still adorn Cremona, which may be esteemed good for the period at which they were produced.
While the Cremonese artists left their native state in search, as we have observed, of more novel methods, a foreigner took up his residence, and not only studied, but taught at Cremona. This was Luigi Miradoro, commonly called Il Genovesino, from his native city of Genoa, whence, after being initiated in the principles of his art, he appears to have gone, while young, to Cremona, towards the beginning of the seventeenth century. There he began to study the works of Panfilo Nuvolone, and afterwards formed a manner partaking of the Caracci, though neither so select nor studied, but bold, large, correct in colouring, harmonious, and productive of fine effect. This artist, equally unknown in his native place and in foreign cities, as well as passed over by Orlandi and his continuator, is nevertheless held in high repute in Lombardy, and particularly in Cremona, where his pictures adorn several churches, among which that of his S. Gio. Damasceno, at S. Clemente, has been most highly commended. The Merchants' College likewise at Piacenza possesses a very beautiful painting of a Pietà from his hand. In all subjects he was successful, and remarkably so in those of a terrific cast. In the Casa Borri at Milan there is a piece representing a variety of punishments inflicted upon some accomplices in a conspiracy, a magnificent production of its kind. Others are to be met with, though not very frequently, in collections belonging to the above mentioned cities, on one of which I read the date of 1639.
Agostino Bonisoli was pupil to Tortiroli, and subsequently, for the space of a year, to Miradoro, though he was more indebted to his own genius than to any master, with the aid of studying excellent models, more especially that of Paul Veronese. From him he borrowed his grace and spirit, his design from other artists. He painted little for churches, and Cremona possesses scarcely any other specimen than the Dialogue of S. Antonio with the tyrant Ezzelino, which is preserved at the church of the Conventuali. His portraits and history-pieces are to be met with in private houses, for the most part taken from sacred records, and intended for the decoration of rooms. Many of these passed into Germany and other foreign parts; for, having been in the service of Gio. Francesco Gonzaga, prince of Bozolo, in which he remained twenty-eight years, his paintings were frequently presented as gifts, or requested by foreigners of rank. As long as he continued in his native state he maintained an academy for the study of naked figures, in which he gave instructions to youth.