We have extolled Mastelletta, and now for a similar taste we must praise Benedetto Possenti, a pupil of Lodovico, and also a spirited painter of figures. His landscapes present us with seaports, embarkations, fairs, festivals, and the like objects. Bartolommeo Loto, or Lotti, was also held in high esteem, first a disciple and next competitor of Viola, one who invariably adhered to the taste of the Caracci. Paolo Antonio Paderna, a pupil of Guercino, afterwards of Cignani, displayed in his landscape admirable imitation of Guercino's manner. There was likewise Antonio dal Sole, from the circumstance of painting with his left hand, denominated il Monchino de' Paesi,[44] Francesco Ghelli, and Filippo Veralli, all sprung from the school of Albani, and all much prized for their rural views in different collections.
Annibal formed, as stated in the second volume, a Gio. da Udine of his own, in a distinguished painter of fruits, called il Gobbo di Cortona, or il Gobbo de' Caracci. Similar reputation was acquired by two Bolognese artists, Antonio Mezzadri, whose flowers and fruits are in abundance at Bologna; and Anton Maria Zagnani, who received commissions even from princely foreigners. Both were excelled by Paolo Antonio Barbieri, as famous for his representation of animals, flowers, and fruits, as his brother Gio. Francesco for the human figure. He bestowed, however, little study on the art, being too much occupied with his family affairs.[45] There was a pupil of Guido, by birth a Milanese, but settled at Bologna, named Pierfrancesco Cittadini, commonly called il Milanese, who surpassed all his fellow scholars. Some of his altar-pieces shew him to have been capable of greater performances; but following the genius and example of several artists whom he saw at Rome, he restricted himself to painting small pictures on canvass, and small branches of histories and landscapes. Yet these were excelled by his specimens of fruits and flowers, with birds of every kind, to which he occasionally added portraits and very graceful figures, in the same piece. Bologna abounds with his paintings, as such a line of study proved useful to the quadraturists,[46] who were often desirous to secure Cittadini's assistance and that of his pupils in their ornamental labours.
For portraits drawn from life, without any other accessaries, Gio. Francesco Negri, pupil of Fialetti, in Venice, was then in credit at Bologna; where he had for his fellow pupil Boschini, who finally became a designer and engraver in copper. Commendations of Negri are met with in the volumes of Malvasia and of Crespi.
Bologna had to boast little that was great in regard to ornamental architecture up to the time of Dentone (Girolamo Curti), who became its restorer also in other parts of Italy. I say restorer, inasmuch as Gio. and Cherubino Alberti at Rome, and the Sandrini at Brescia, with the Bruni in Venice, had produced some fine specimens. Nor, if we consider the times, were Agostino dalle Prospettive and Tommaso Lauretti, in Bologna itself, destitute of merit, as we have already stated. But their models being either neglected or corrupted by their successors, produced no solid advantage to the art; so that there were either no quadraturists in any cities of Italy, or they were extremely rare, and esteemed only as the refuse of the figurists. Dentone, with his companions, not only revived, but elevated and enlarged this art. Sprung from a spinning manufactory of the Signori Rizzardi, he commenced under Lionello Spada to attempt the design of figures; and finding this too difficult, he turned to ornamental painting, and acquired from Baglione the use of the rule, and to draw the lines. He proceeded no farther with this master; but, having purchased the works of Vignola and Serlio, he in these studied the different orders of architecture, grounded himself in perspective, formed a solid and well regulated taste, which he farther improved with what he saw at Rome, among the remains of ancient architecture. He attempted much in the form of relief, which is indeed the soul of this profession. His fine illusions of cornices, colonnades, lodges, balustrades, arches, and modiglioni, seen with the effect of foreshortening, have led to the supposition of his being assisted by stuccos, or some materials of strong relief; while the whole is produced by the effect of chiaroscuro, brought to a facility, truth, and grace never before seen. In his colours he preserved those of the stones and marbles; avoiding those tints of gems and precious stones, afterwards introduced at the expense of all verisimilitude. It was an invention of his to lay gold-leaf over his works in fresco. He made use of burnt oil, with turpentine and yellow wax, melted together, and placed, in a dissolved state, with a fine pencil, on the parts where the lights occur, and where the gold leaf is applied. Still he but sparingly availed himself of such discovery, consigning its abuse to his followers. Anxious for durability, he was accustomed to rough sketch, and afterwards to fill up with other layers, then making of the whole one solid impasto, or mingled layers of colours; while in the most exposed spots, not trusting wholly to the plaster, he united very fine portions of white marble, as subtly inserted as we see in the façade of the Grimaldi palace. He thus conferred fresh lustre on both palaces and churches; and next proceeding to the theatres, he exhibited novel spectacles in them. The nearmost scenes he painted with the most commanding power of shade, and diminishing its depth by degrees, conducted the eye to the most remote with sensations of harmony and delight. This contrast of depth and sweetness gave the illusion of an immense prospect in small space; and such was the degree of relief in the edifices there represented, that numbers, on the first appearance, went upon the stage in order to explore the reality more nearly. His excellence in this respect soon obtained him commissions out of Bologna; from the Card. Legate, at Ravenna, from the sovereigns of Parma and Modena, and at Rome from Prince Lodovisi, for whom he painted a hall, which outshone the Sala Clementina, decorated by Gio. Alberti, until then esteemed the most admirable of its kind.
It was Dentone's custom to retain the services of a figurist, in order to model his statues, prepare his chiaroscuri, figures of boys, and sometimes even animals and flowers, with all which he ornamented, not always with discreetness, his architectural views. The most erudite among the young artists here vied in offers of their services, desirous of profiting by the same art, and acquiring reputation. In the hall of the Conti Malvasia, at Trebbio, he was assisted by Brizio, Francesco and Antonio Caracci, and Valesio; also by Massari, in the grand chapel of S. Domenico, who attended him as well in the library of the fathers of S. Martino, where he painted the celebrated Dispute of S. Cirillo. In the Tanara palace he even engaged Guercino, who there exhibited his grand Hercules; while elsewhere he was assisted by Campana, Galanino, and Spada, and a few cartoons were afforded him by Guido himself. But his most useful colleague was Angiol Michele Colonna, who arriving at an early age from Como, and having studied some time under Ferrantini, finally united himself with Dentone, and became celebrated throughout Europe. This artist, according to Crespi, enjoyed the reputation of the greatest fresco painter of whom Bologna could boast; such was his spirited drawing both of men and animals, such his eminence in perspective, and every species of ornamental work, that he was himself alone equal to any grand undertaking, and painted alone an entire chamber at the Florentine court, and a chapel at S. Alessandro, in Parma. The perspectives in the tribune of that church were by his hand; the figures by Tiarini; and in several other places the perspectives were by Dentone, the figures by Colonna. It formed his peculiar talent, with whatever painter he might engage, so to adapt himself to the style and spirit of his colleague, that the entire work seemed the idea of the same mind, the product of a single hand. Nor did he require any delay; for whilst his companion proceeded with his own portion, he, with wonderful velocity, consistency, and admirable harmony, despatched the work; a gift for which he was very generally sought after, and more particularly by Dentone, who retained him after his return from Rome, until the period of his decease.
Whilst these two celebrated men thus promoted their profession, there was rising into notice one Agostino Mitelli, a youth of very prolific genius, not unacquainted with the figure, which Passeri supposes he acquired from the Caracci, and well-grounded in perspective and architecture, under Falcetta. When the two friends were engaged in decorating the archiepiscopal palace at Ravenna, and at the courts of Parma and Modena, Mitelli alternately assisted the figurist and the quadraturist. This last, however, was the art he most affected, and to which, on separating from his masters, he finally devoted himself. His first labours proved very attractive to the public; not that they equalled the force, solidity, and reality of Dentone, but on account of their peculiar grace and beauty, such as almost to obtain for him the fame of the Guido of the quadraturists. Employing his own taste, he softened down the harder features of the art, made the elevations more delicate, the tints more mild, and added a style of foliage, scrolls, and arabesques, decorated with gold, such as seemed to breathe of grace. The play of the ornaments varied with the nature of the edifices; some ideas were adapted to halls, some to churches, and others to theatres. Each ornament filled its appropriate place, at just intervals; the entire work finally according with a delightful symmetry and harmony, so as to take by surprise people not yet familiar with similar illusions, and to remind them, as it were, of the enchanted palaces of the romancers. Mitelli's first assistants were two of his fellow pupils in this art, Andrea Sighizzi and Gio. Paderna, with occasionally the figurist Ambrogi; names not unworthy of[TN9] a place in the history of the arts, though unequal to compete with such a colleague.
Colonna alone seemed born to associate with him, as he did after the death of his favourite Curti. An intimacy ensued, which was like the second act of Angiol Michele's life; an intimacy which, strengthened by mutual esteem and interest, and cherished by habit and kind offices, continued during twenty-four years, until terminated by the death of Mitelli. These two friends added greatly to the excellent models of the art at Bologna; and among their most celebrated labours are the chapel of Rosario, and the hall of the Conti Caprara. Elsewhere, as in the Bentivogli and Pepoli palaces, Agostino produced only specimens of architecture; and in others we see his pictures of perspective conducted a guazzo, with figures by Gioseffo, his son, a disciple of Torre, who engraved even better than he painted. In their commissions beyond Bologna, Mitelli and Colonna were always invited together; as to Parma, to Modena, to Florence, by their respective rulers; by the Marchesi Balbi to Genoa, and by Cardinal Spada to Rome, whose ample hall they enlarged, as it were, and dignified by means of feigned colonnades, artful recesses, and magnificent steps, where numbers of figures, arrayed in varied and novel drapery, were seen ascending and descending. Called subsequently to the court of Philip IV., they decorated three chambers and a magnificent hall in Madrid, where Colonna, too, produced his so highly extolled Fable of Pandora. They here sojourned for the space of two years, the last of Mitelli's life, who died much regretted by the whole court, and by the Spanish artists, at whose head stood Diego Velasquez.
Colonna returned into Italy, and as a third act of his life, we may record the twenty-seven years which he afterwards lived; during the earlier portion, availing himself, for his architectures, of the services of Giacomo Alboresi, Mitelli's great pupil; and in the latter, of Giovacchino Pizzoli, his own scholar, known also among painters of landscape. Crespi adds the name of Gio. Gherardini, and Antonio Roli, or Rolli according to the Cav. Titi, whose specimens in this branch, at the Certosa of Pisa, he extols as perfect miracles of the art (p. 301). In this trio are included all belonging to Colonna's school. It is observed by Malvasia, that from Mitelli's society, Angiol Michele himself derived utility, as regarded architecture; not that he ever equalled his deceased friend, but from adopting thenceforward a more elegant manner. This progress is apparent in the cupola of S. Biagio; as well as in the ceiling and in a chapel of S. Bartolommeo, decorated by him after his return from Spain. Other specimens he produced at this period, at Ponzacco, a villa of the Marchese Nicolini, of Florence; in the Morisini palace, at Padua, and at Paris, for M. Lionne, state secretary to the French king. Colonna attained the age of eighty-six, and left, at his death, numerous professors of an art, which he and his two colleagues may almost be said to have invented, and given to the public.
I have enumerated different young artists of these schools; and they, too, united together, traversing Italy in the service of princes and nobles, and forming pupils in every place; so that no art ever spread more rapidly. Gio. Paderna, pupil to Dentone, and next an accomplished imitator of Mitelli, became the colleague of Baldassare Bianchi; and the latter, at the death of Paderna, having become Mitelli's son-in-law, was placed companion, by the father-in-law, with Gio. Giacomo Monti. This partnership also met with success in Italy, in particular at Mantua, where they both received regular salaries. Their figure-painter was Gio. Batista Caccioli, of Budrio, pupil to Canuti, and a good disciple of Cignani, who left frescos, altar-pieces, and private pictures; in particular, his heads of old men, in high request. Another son-in-law of Mitelli, Giacomo Alboresi, was much employed at the court of Parma, in that of Florence, and in the villa Capponi, of Colonnata. He was assisted in his figures by Fulgenzio Mondini, and on his death, by Giulio Cesare Milani, who was esteemed the best pupil of Torre. Domenico Santi, named Mengazzino, was also one of the ablest among Mitelli's pupils, and left, at the Servi, in S. Colombano, and in the Ratta palace, some fine works in perspective, with figures by Giuseppe Mitelli, by Burrini, and most of all by Canuti, never having left his native place. His perspectives, on canvass, are highly esteemed in cabinets, and are sometimes hardly to be distinguished from those of Agostino. Andrea Sighizzi, the father and master of three artists, was employed also at Turin, Mantua, and Parma, where he received a salary from the court, and had Pasinelli for his best companion. It would carry us too far, to recount all the quadraturists sprung from these schools; nor would all, perhaps, deserve commemoration. Though no art was more rapidly extended, none sooner degenerated; caprice usurped the place of sound rules of architecture, and was carried to a pitch of extravagance and impertinence, when the Borrominesque taste began to extend through Italy. Architecture itself, which forms the basis of this profession, began, in course of time, to be regarded as an accessary; a greater share of study was employed in the vases of flowers, in festoons, in fruits, and foliages, and certain novelties of grotesque, against which both Algarotti and Crespi have so justly and successfully inveighed.
We cannot close this account without the name of Giovannino da Capugnano, an artist very fully treated of by Malvasia and Orlandi, and highly extolled in the studies of the painters, even in our own days. Misled by a pleasing self-delusion, he believed himself born to become a painter; like that ancient personage, mentioned by Horace, who imagined himself the owner of all the vessels that arrived in the Athenian port. His chief talent lay in making crucifixes, to fill up the angles, and in giving a varnish to the balustrades. Next, he attempted landscape in water-colours, in which were exhibited the most strange proportions, of houses less than the men; these last smaller than his sheep; and the sheep again than his birds. Extolled, however, in his own district, he determined to leave his native mountains, and figure on a wider theatre at Bologna; there he opened his house, and requested the Caracci, the only artists he believed to be more learned than himself, to furnish him with a pupil, whom he intended to polish in his studio. Lionello Spada, an admirable wit, accepted this invitation; he went and copied designs, affecting the utmost obsequiousness towards his master. At length, conceiving it time to put an end to the jest, he left behind him a most exquisite painting of Lucretia, and over the entrance of the chamber some fine satirical octaves, in apparent praise, and real ridicule of Capugnano. His worthy master only accused Lionello of ingratitude, for having acquired from him in so short a space the art of painting so beautifully from his designs; but the Caracci at last acquainted him with the joke, which acted as a complete antidote to his folly. In some Bolognese galleries his pictures are preserved as specimens, in some degree connected with pictorial history;[47] and which, though composed with all becoming gravity, are as diverting as any caricature of Miel or of Cerquozzi. Were we to desire a second example of such imbecility in the art, it would be found in Crespi,[48] who gives some account of one Pietro Galletti. Equally persuaded of having been born a painter, Pietro became a laughing-stock to the students, who solemnly invested him with a doctorial degree in the art, assembling for that purpose in the cellar of a monastery.