I mentioned, not far back, in treating of Titian's disciples, the names of Callisto da Lodi and Gio. da Monte, and I have here to add that of Simone Peterzano, or Preterazzano, who, on his Pietà, at S. Fedele, inscribed himself Titiani Discipulus; and his close imitation seems to confirm its truth. He produced also works in fresco, and particularly at S. Barnaba several histories of St. Paul. He there appears to have aimed at uniting the expression, the foreshortening, and the perspective of the Milanese to the colouring of the Venetian artists; noble works, if they were thoroughly correct; and if the author had been as excellent in fresco as in oil painting. From Venice, or rather from its Senate, we trace the name of Cesare Dandolo, who went to settle at Milan, and whose paintings adorn various palaces, esteemed no less for their art than on account of the rank of the noble artist.
The Campi were among the most eager to establish themselves at Milan, where they were much employed, and Bernardino more than the rest. He painted, likewise, in the adjacent cities, and it was at that period that he completed for the Certosa, at Pavia, the before-mentioned altar-piece of Andrea Solari, which, remaining unfinished at his death, was, after the lapse of many years, completed in the same style by Bernardino, so as to appear wholly from the same hand. Unable alone to despatch his commissions, he had his cartoons coloured by his pupils, who became, like their master, accurate, precise, and worthy of the commendations bestowed upon them by Lomazzo. One of these was Giuseppe Meda, both painter and architect, who represented upon an organ, in the Metropolitana, the figure of David seen playing before the ark. This work is cited by Orlandi, under the name of Carlo Meda, who, perhaps, belonged to the family of the preceding, and who, as stated in the dictionary, appears younger. Few of his other pictures are to be seen, as is observed by Scannelli. Another was Daniello Cunio, of Milan, who became a landscape painter of great merit; perhaps a brother, or other relation of the same Ridolfo Cunio, who is met with in several Milanese collections, and is particularly celebrated for his design. The third was Carlo Urbini da Crema, one of the least celebrated but most deserving artists of his age, and one whom we have commemorated elsewhere. Lamo observes, that Bernardino had a vast number of scholars and assistants, and from his account, we are here enabled to add the names of Andrea da Viadana, Giuliano or Giulio de' Capitani, of Lodi, and Andrea Marliano, of Pavia. Perhaps, also, Andrea Pellini belongs to this list, who, though unknown in his native city of Cremona, is celebrated at Milan for his Descent from the Cross, placed at S. Eustorgio, in 1595.
Of a later date, appeared at Milan the two Semini, from Genoa; both of whom were much employed, and both disciples of the Roman more than any other style. Ottavio, the eldest, instructed Paol Camillo Landriani, called Il Duchino, who was justly praised in the Tempio of Lomazzo as a youth of the greatest promise. He subsequently produced a number of altar-pieces, among which was a Nativity, at S. Ambrogio, in which, to the design and elegance of his master, he unites perhaps a greater degree of softness. The professors hitherto described, do not reach the era of the art's decline, except, possibly, in their extreme old age; insomuch as to be fully worthy of the praise I bestow.
The artists, however, who more particularly employed themselves in painting and teaching at Milan during this period, were the Procaccini of Bologna. Though not mentioned by Lomazzo in his Treatise, in the year 1584, they are afterwards, in 1590, recorded with much honour in his Tempio; so that we may infer that they became celebrated during the intervening period at Milan, where they afterwards established themselves in 1609. Ercole is at the head of this family, whom Orlandi, following Malvasia, represents in a military manner, as having lost the field at Bologna, where he could no longer "make head against the Samacchini, the Cesi, the Sabbatini, the Passarotti, the Fontana, the Caracci, though he afterwards encountered the Figini, the Luini, the Cerani, and the Morazzoni, at Milan." I am at a loss how to verify such an assertion. Ercole was born in 1520, as I gathered from a MS. of P. Resta, in the Ambrosian library; and in 1590, when the "Temple of Painting" first issued from the press, he was very old, nor did he ever exhibit any of his pictures in public at Milan, so that Lomazzo ought to have sought subjects for commendation of him from Parma, and more particularly Bologna. Many of his works still remain there, from which we may decide whether Malvasia and Baldinucci had more reason to represent him as an artist of mediocrity, or Lomazzo to entitle him a very successful imitator of the great Coreggio's colouring, as well as of his grace and beauty. In my own opinion he appears somewhat minute in design, and feeble in his colouring, resembling the tone of the Florentines; a thing so common among his contemporaries, that I know not why it should be made a peculiar reproach to him. For the rest he is more pleasing, accurate, and exact, than most artists of his age; and possibly his over diligence acted as an obstacle to him in a city where the rapid Fontana bore the chief sway. But this quality, besides exempting him from the mannerism then beginning to prevail, rendered him an excellent preceptor; whose principal duty is found to consist in checking the impatience of young artists, and accustoming them to precision and delicacy of taste. Thus many excellent pupils sprung from his school, such as Samacchini, Sabbatini, and Bertoia. He instructed also his three sons, Camillo, Giulio Cesare, and Carlo Antonio, from which last sprung Ercole the younger; all masters of young Milanese artists, and of whom it will be our business to treat in succession.
Camillo is the only one of the three who was known to Lomazzo, who describes him as an artist distinguished both for his design and his colouring. He received his first instructions from his father, and often displays a resemblance in his heads, and in the distribution of his tints; though, where he painted with care, he both warmed and broke them, as well as employed the middle colours, in a superior manner. He studied other schools, and if we are to believe some of his biographers, he practised at Rome from the models of Raffaello and Michelangiolo, besides being passionately devoted to the heads of Parmigianino, an imitation of which is perceptible in all his works. He possessed wonderful facility both in conception and execution; added to nature, beauty, and spirit, always attractive to the eye, though they do not always satisfy the judgment. Nor is this surprising, as he early threw off the reign of paternal instruction, and executed works enough to have employed ten artists, at Bologna, at Ravenna, Reggio, Piacenza, Pavia, and Genoa. He was by many called the Vasari, and the Zuccaro of Lombardy; although to say truth, he surpasses them in sweetness of style and of colours. He was particularly engaged at Milan, a city which boasts some of his best productions, by which he obtained reputation there; and many of his worst, with which he satisfied those who valued his name. Of his earliest works there, and the most free from mannerism, are those adorning the exterior of the organ at the Metropolitana, along with various mysteries of our Lady, and two histories of David playing upon his harp; all described very minutely by Malvasia. But he produced nothing in Milan equal to his Judgment at S. Procol di Reggio, esteemed one of the finest specimens of fresco in all Lombardy; and to his S. Rocco among the sick and dying of the plague, a picture that intimidated Annibal Caracci, when he had to paint a companion for it, (see Malvasia, p. 466). The pictures produced by Camillo, in the cathedral of Piacenza, where the Duke of Parma had placed him in competition with Lodovico Caracci, whose genius was then mature, are well and carefully executed. He there represented our Lady crowned Queen of the Universe by the Almighty, surrounded with a very full choir of Angels, in whose forms he displayed the most finished beauty. It was the part of Lodovico to represent other angels around; and opposite to the Coronation the Padri del Limbo. The first occupied the most distinguished place in the tribune; though both then and now he was esteemed by spectators the least worthy of the two. However advantageously he there appears, and entitled to the applause of Girupeno and other historians, as well as travellers, he at the same time loses a portion of his consequence at the side of Caracci, who, by the novelty of his ideas, the natural expression of his countenances, of his attitudes, and of his symbols, especially in those angels opposed to the more common conceptions of his rival, makes the monotony and weakness of Procaccini the more remarkable. Caracci's superior dignity, likewise, in his figures of the patriarchs, throws that of Camillo's Divinity into the shade. They also executed some histories of the Madonna, placed opposite each other; and almost bearing the same proportion as we have already mentioned. But as the Caracci were few, Procaccini for the most part triumphed over his competitors. He is even now well received in the collections of the great, and our own prince has recently obtained one of his Assumptions, with Apostles surrounding the tomb of Jesus, a picture full of variety, and in a grand manner.
Giulio Cesare, the best of the Procaccini, at first devoted himself to sculpture with success, subsequently attaching himself to painting, as to a less laborious and more pleasing art. He frequented the Caracci Academy at Bologna; and it is said, that taking offence at some satirical observations of Annibal's, he struck, and even wounded him. His French biographer states Giulio's birth to have occurred in 1548, though he postpones this quarrel until 1609, in which year the Procaccini established themselves at Milan. It must have occurred, however, much earlier, as in 1609 Giulio was a renowned painter, while Annibal was in his decline. Giulio Cesare's studies were directed to the models of Coreggio, and it is the opinion of many, that no one approached nearer to the grand style of that artist. In his small pictures, with few figures, in which imitation is more easy, he has often been mistaken for his original, though his elegance cannot boast the same clear and native tone, nor his colours the same rich and vigorous handling. One of his Madonnas, at S. Luigi de' Francesi, at Rome, was, in fact, engraved not long since for a work of Allegri, by an excellent artist; and there are other equally fine imitations at the Sanvitali Palace, in Parma; in that of the Careghi, in Genoa, and other places. Among his numerous altar-pieces, the one I have seen, which displays most of the Coreggio manner, is at S. Afra, in Brescia. It represents the Virgin and Child, surrounded with some figures of Angels and Saints, which are seen gazing and smiling upon him. He has perhaps, indeed, gone somewhat beyond the limits of propriety, in order to attain more grace, which is the case with his Nunziata, at S. Antonio, in Milan; in which the Holy Virgin and Angel are seen smiling at each other; a circumstance hardly compatible either with the time or the mystery. In his attitudes, also, he was occasionally guilty of extravagance, as in his Martyrdom of S. Nazario, in the church of that name, a picture attractive by its harmony and its grace, though the figure of the executioner is in too forced a position. Giulio left many very large histories, such as his Passage of the Red Sea, at S. Vittore, in Milan; and more in Genoa, where Soprani has pointed them out. What is surprising, in so vast a number of his pieces, is the accuracy of his design, the variety of his ideas, and his diligence both in his naked and dressed parts, combined at the same time with a grandeur, which, if I mistake not, he derived from the Caracci. In the Sacristy of S. Maria, at Sarono, is his picture of Saints Andrea, Carlo, and Ambrogio, displaying the most dignified character of their school; if, indeed, we are not to suppose, that in common with the Caracci, he acquired it from those magnificent models of the art at Parma.
To these two may be added Carlantonio Procaccini, not as a figure, but a good landscape painter, and a tolerable hand in drawing fruits and flowers. He produced a variety of pieces for the Milanese gallery, which happening to please the court, then one of the branches of Spain, he had frequent commissions from that country, insomuch that he rose, though the weakest of the family, into the highest repute.
The Procaccini opened school at Milan, where they obtained the reputation of kind and able masters, educating, both for the city and state, so great a number of artists, that it would be neither possible nor useful to comprise them all in a history. They could boast among them some inventors of a new style, the same as the disciples of the Caracci; though most of them aimed at observing the manner of their masters; some maintaining it by their accuracy, and others injuring it by their over haste. We reserve the series of them, however, to the last epoch, in order not to disperse the same school through different parts.
The last of the foreigners who then gave instructions at Milan, was Panfilo Nuvolone, a noble Cremonese, of whose style we treated at length in the list of the Cav. Trotti's disciples. He was a diligent rather than an imaginative artist, and produced no works of any extent at Milan, except for the nunneries of Saints Domenico and Lazzaro, where he painted in the ceiling the history of Lazarus and the Rich Man, with true pictoric splendour; which is no less apparent in his Assumption of the Virgin, in the cupola of the Passione. In his altar-pieces, and histories executed for the ducal gallery at Parma, he aimed rather at perfecting than at multiplying his figures. He instructed his four sons, two of whom are unknown in the history of the art, and the two others are frequently mentioned by different illustrators of the paintings of Milan, of Piacenza, of Parma, and of Brescia; where they are also surnamed, from their father, the Panfili. We shall, however, treat of them more particularly in the age during which they flourished.
Fede Galizia introduced another foreign style into Milan, a female artist, who, according to Orlandi, was a native of Trent. Her father, Annunzio, was a celebrated miniaturist, born at the same place, and a resident at Milan, and from him perhaps she acquired that taste for accuracy and finish of hand, no less remarkable in her figures than in her landscapes; in other points, more similar to the Bolognese predecessors of the Caracci, than to any other school. There are some specimens of her style in foreign collections. One of her best studied pictures is seen at S. Maria Maddalena, where she painted the titular saint, with the figure of Christ in the dress of a gardener. This lady has been criticised by the excellent author of the Guide, for her too great study of the ideal, which she aimed at introducing both into her design and colouring, at the expense of nature and of truth, a practice pretty much in vogue at that period in Italy. About the same time, one Orazio Vaiano was employed a good deal at Milan, where he long resided, called Il Fiorentino from his extraction. He, in some way, came to be confounded, in some of his pictures, with the elder Palma, as we are informed by Orlandi; but how, it is difficult to say. The specimens of his composition at S. Carlo and at S. Antonio Abate, are judicious and diligent, though somewhat feeble in point of colouring; and in the distribution of their lights much resembling the tone of Roncalli. He likewise visited Genoa; but neither he nor Galizia, as I am aware, left any pupils at Milan. The same may be said of the two Carloni, noble fresco painters belonging to Genoa, and of Valerio Profondavalle, from Lovanio, who painted glass, as well as in oil and in fresco, for all which he had frequent commissions at court.