On devoting themselves, at the suggestion of Lodovico, to the pictoric art, they still found themselves opposed to each other in genius, as they were in manners. Agostino was timid, and extremely select, backward in resolve, difficult to please himself, and was never aware of a difficulty that he did not encounter, and attempt to vanquish it. Annibal, in common with numbers of artificers, was an expeditious workman, intolerant of doubts and delays, eagerly seeking every remedy for the intricacies of the art, trying the most easy methods, and to perform much in little time. Had they indeed fallen into other hands, Agostino would have become a new Samacchini, Annibal a new Passerotti; and painting would have owed no improvement to their efforts. But their cousin's fine judgment led him, in their education, to imitate Isocrates, who, instructing Ephorus and Theopompus, was accustomed to say, that he was compelled to apply spurs to the one, and a rein to the other. With similar views he consigned Agostino to Fontana, as an easy and rapid master, and retained Annibal in his own studio, where works were carried to higher perfection. By such means too he kept them apart, until riper age should by degrees remove the enmity subsisting between them, and convert it into a bond of amity, when devoted to the same profession, they might unite their capital, and mutually assist each other. In a few years he succeeded in reconciling them, and in 1580 he placed them at Parma and at Venice, of which an account has been given under those schools. During this period Agostino collected materials for his varied learning, and enlarged his design; and as before leaving Bologna he had made great progress in engraving under Domenico Tibaldi, he continued in Venice to practise it under Cort with such success, as to excite his master's jealousy, who drove him, but in vain, from his studio; for Agostino was already esteemed the Marc Antonio of his time. Annibal, devoted to a single aim, both at Parma and Venice continued to paint, availing himself of the works and conversation of illustrious men, with whom at that period the Venetian School abounded. It was then, or shortly subsequent, that he executed his beautiful copies of Coreggio, Titian, and Paul Veronese; in whose taste he also conducted some small pictures. Several specimens of these I saw in possession of the Marchese Durazzo at Genoa, displaying opposite, but very graceful styles.
Returning accomplished artists into their native place, they struggled long and nobly with their fortunes. Their first undertakings consisted of the exploits of Jason, in a frieze of the Casa Favi; these, though conducted with the assistance of Lodovico, were vituperated with excessive scorn by the old painters, as deficient both in elegance and correctness. To this censure, the credit of these masters who had flourished at Rome, who were extolled by the poets, adorned with diplomas, and regarded by the declining age as pillars of the art, seemed to give weight. Their disciples echoed their words, and the crowd repeated them; and such murmurs proceeding from a public, gifted with as much volubility in conversation as would suffice for purposes of declamation or controversy elsewhere, wounded the feelings of the Caracci, overwhelmed and depressed them. I was informed by the accomplished Cav. Niccolò Fava, that Lodovico's change of fortune, along with that of his cousins, occurred on an occasion, and at a period little differing from the above; which is supported by a tradition to the same effect. The two cousins had executed the frieze in the same hall where Cesi adorned another, in opposition to it, with histories of Æneas, which we have already mentioned, (p. 74). The work, conducted in the old style, was certainly beautiful, but Lodovico, in the new, painted another chamber with other histories, twelve in number, of Æneas, of which mention is made in the Guide of Bologna, (p. 14); histories in no way inferior to those in the Casa Magnani. Here was the beginning of the Caracci's fortune, and of the fall of the old masters, Bologna at length preparing to do justice to the worth of that divine artist, and to verify in respect to Cesi that sentence of Hesiod, of which, to the best of my ability, I here offer a version from the Greek, as follows:
Folle chi al più potente fa contrasto!
Che perde la vittoria; e sempre al fine,
Oltra lo scorno, di dolor si è guasto!
Opera V. 210.
Fool, that will dare to cross the path of one
More powerful! and ever to the loss
Of victory, at last add scorn and grief.
It was now that the Caracci, more than ever confident in their style, answered the voice of censure only by works full of vigour and nature, opposed to the works of older masters, feeble and void of truth. By such means that revolution of style which had so long been meditated, at length took place; but it became necessary, in order to accelerate it, to bring over the students of the art to their party, the better to insure the hopes of a new and improved era. This too the Caracci achieved, by opening an academy of painting at their house, which they entitled Degli Incamminati, supplying it with casts, designs, and prints, in the same manner as those of their rivals; besides introducing a school for the drawing of the naked figure, and for the study of anatomy and perspective: in short, every thing requisite to the art; directing the whole with a skill added to a kindness that could not fail to procure it abundance of pupils. In particular, the fiery temper of Dionisio Calvart contributed to fill it, who, being in the habit of striking, and even wounding his disciples, drove Guido, Albano, and Domenichino, to transfer their talents to the studio of the Caracci. Panico too entered it from the school of Fontana, and from all sides the best young artists assembled, drawing after them fresh ranks of students. Finally, the other academies were closed; every school was left to solitude; every name gave way before that of the Caracci; to them the best commissions, to them the meed of praise were accorded. Their humbled rivals soon assumed another language, especially when the grand hall of Magnani was thrown open, presenting the wonders of the new Carraccesque art. It was then Cesi declared that he would become a disciple of the new school; and Fontana only lamented that he was too grey-headed to keep pace with it, while Calvart alone, with his usual bravado, ventured to blame the work, being the last of all to recant, or at least to become silent.
It is now time to record the pursuits and the maxims of an academy, which, besides educating many illustrious pupils, perfected the art of their masters; and confirmed the axiom, that the shortest method of learning much is that of teaching. The three brothers were on the most perfect understanding as to the art of teaching, as free from venality as from envy; but the most laborious branches of the professorship were sustained by Agostino. He had drawn up a short treatise of perspective and architecture, from which he expounded to the school. He explained the nature of the bones and muscles, designating them by their names, in which he was assisted by Lanzoni the anatomist, who also secretly provided the school with bodies for such dissections as were required. His lectures were sometimes founded upon history, at others upon fictions; and these he illustrated, and offered for designs, which being exhibited at stated intervals, were examined by skilful judges, who decided upon their respective merits; as we gather from a ticket written to Cesi, one of the arbiters. The meed of fame was sufficient for the crowned candidates, round whom the poets collected to celebrate their name; with whom Agostino enthusiastically joined both with harp and voice, applauding the progress of his scholars. These last were likewise instructed in true criticism, and to give due praise or blame to the works of others; they were also taught to criticise their own works, and whoever could not give good reasons for what he had done, and defend his own work, must cancel it upon the spot. Each, however, was at liberty to pursue what path he pleased, or rather each entered upon that to which nature had best adapted him, which gave rise to so many original manners from the same studio; yet each style was to be founded upon reason, nature, and imitation. In all more doubtful points, recourse was had to the opinion of Lodovico; the cousins presided over the daily exercises of design, full of assiduity, industry, and perseverance. Even the recreations of the academicians had a view to art; to draw landscapes from nature, or to sketch caricatures, were the customary amusements of Annibale and the disciples of the school, when they wished to relax from study.[23]
The maxim of uniting together the study of nature, and the imitation of the best masters, already touched upon in the outset of this book, formed the real foundation of the school of Caracci; although they took care to modify it according to particular talents, as we have seen. Their object was to collect into one whatever they found most valuable in other schools, and in this process they observed two methods. The first resembles that of the poets, who, in several Canzoni, propose different models for imitation; in one, for instance, borrowing from Petrarch, in another from Chiabrera, in a third from Frugoni. The second method is like that of those, who, being masters of these three styles, form and harmonize them into one, like Corinthian metal, composed of various other kinds. Thus the Caracci, in some of their compositions, were accustomed to present different styles in a variety of different figures. So Lodovico, in his Preaching of St. John the Baptist, at the church of the Certosini (where Crespi is especially opposed to Paul Veronese), has exhibited the audience of the saint in such a manner that a judge described them by these names:—the Raffaellesque, the Tizianesque, and the imitator of Tintoretto. Annibal too, who had long admired only Coreggio, having finally adopted Lodovico's maxim, painted his celebrated picture for the church of St. George, where, in his figure of the Virgin, he imitated Paolo; in that of the Divine Infant and St. John, Coreggio; in St. John the Evangelist he exhibited Titian; and in the very graceful form of St. Catherine, the sweetness of Parmigianino. Most generally, however, they pursued the second path, and still more examples might be adduced of less apparent and more free and mixed imitations, so modified as to produce a whole of a perfectly original character. And the ingenious Agostino, emulating the ancient legislators, who embodied all their laws in a few verses, composed that very picturesque, rather than poetical sonnet, in praise of Niccolino Abati, but which also well explains the maxim of their school, in selecting the peculiar merits of each different style. It has been handed down to us by Malvasia, in his life of Primaticcio, and runs as follows:—
Chi farsi un buon pittor brama e desia
Il disegno di Roma abbia alla mano,
La mossa coll'ombrar Veneziano,
E il degno colorir di Lombardia;
Di Michelangiol la terribil via,
Il vero natural di Tiziano,
Di Coreggio lo stil puro e sovrano,
Di un Raffael la vera simmetria;
Del Tibaldi il decoro e il fondamento,
Del dotto Primaticcio l'inventare,
E un po' di grazia del Parmigianino:
Ma senza tanti studii e tanto stento
Si ponga solo l'opre ad imitare
Che qui lasciocci il nostro Niccolino.
To paint for fame, who nurtures high desire,
Will Rome's design keep ever in his view;
To the Venetian shade and action true,
Of Lombardy's whole colouring never tire;
Kindle at Michael's terrors, and his fire,
Seize Titian's living truth, who nature drew;
Allegri's pure and sovereign graces too;
To heavenly Raphael's symmetry aspire:
Tibaldi's solid sense, appropriate air,
And Primaticcio's learn'd inventive thought,
With Parmigiano's graceful sweetness fraught.
And should all these ask too much studious care,
Turn to our Niccolino's bright display
Of wondrous works, the envy of his day.
It is not easy to ascertain how far the Caracci may have carried this project, though it must always reflect the highest degree of credit upon them to have executed it in a superior manner to all other artists. In the outset they most felt their deficiency in their imitation of the antique, called by Agostino the design of Rome. He and Annibal, however, while residing there as strangers, in some measure reproduced and restored it to Roman artists themselves; and Lodovico, though remaining at Bologna, shewed that he was by no means unacquainted with it. At first, observes Mengs, they devoted much study to Coreggio, both in their ample outline and in their general design, although they did not observe the same exact equilibrium in their concave and convex lines, but rather affected the latter. There were other points which they did not attempt to include in such imitation, as in the shortening of the heads, and exhibiting them so very frequently with that smile so much repeated by the Parmigiani, by Barocci, and Vanni. They took their heads from life, and improved upon them by general ideas of the beautiful. Hence Annibal's Madonnas, many of them of a small size on copper, exhibit a peculiar and original beauty derived from his studies; and the same may be said of Lodovico, who, in his softer heads, often gives the portrait of a lady named Giacomazzi, celebrated for her beauty at that time. The Caracci were extremely well-grounded in a knowledge of anatomy, and of the naked figure; and it would be manifest injustice not to give them credit for due estimation of Michelangiolo, whom they also imitated. One of them indeed is known to have said, with some acrimony towards the rival school, that Bonarruoti ought to have covered his bones with a little flesh, in the manner of their own Tibaldi. It is true they availed themselves less of the naked form in composition than the Florentines, though more largely than the other schools. In their costume, they were not so anxious to observe the exactness and richness of Paul Veronese, as the grandeur of his folds and form; nor did any other school give more ample flow of drapery, or arrange it with dignity more suitable to the figures.