[23] It must be observed that the two younger Caracci visited Rome, where they continued to instruct their pupils on the same plan. Passeri, in his life of Guido, says, that they were joined by literary men, who proposed history-pieces to them, with premiums for such as should be best executed; and that on one occasion Domenichino, one of the youngest, being preferred above all, Guido was seized with the most lively emulation to eclipse him. The historian adds, that the same method was soon adopted in the Roman academy, and that Car. Barberini, nephew to Urban VIII., presided at the election of the first, and rewarded him with money, and those that next followed, to the fourth member. Moreover he gave the first a commission for a picture from the same subject as the design. What a secret is here shewn for promoting the fine arts.
[24] See Crespi's analysis of the two pictures at the church of the Certosa, (p. 32,) one representing the Scourging of Christ, the other his Crown of Thorns, where the most beautiful art of disposing the light to produce the desired effect is remarkable; with an exquisite effect of perspective, and a degree of invention not to be surpassed in representing the suffering of our Redeemer.
[25] Lettere Pittoriche, tom. vii. lettera 4.
[26] In colours, of which yolk of egg, or a kind of glue, is the vehicle.
[27] See the Dissertazione su la Pittura, by the Canon Lazzarini, in the Catalogue of Pictures at Pesaro, p. 118.
[28] See Malvasia, vol.i. p. 574.
[29] He was likewise very eminent in this branch, being named by Gregory XV. as architect for the Apostolic Palace.
[30] The Cav. Puccini very justly condemns this opinion in his Esame Critico del Webb, p. 49.
[31] See the defence set up by Crespi, both for Domenichino and Massari, another imitator of Agostino's picture. It is inserted in the Certosa di Bologna, described at p. 26. He has also been commended by Bellori for his slowness of hand, who brings forward some of his maxims, such as that, "no single line is worthy of a real painter which is not dictated by the genius before it is traced by the hand; that excellence consists in the full and proper completion of works;" and he used to reproach those pupils who designed in sketch, and coloured by dashes of the pencil (p. 213). We meet with a third apology in Passeri, (p. 4,) for some figures borrowed from the Farnese Gallery, and imitated by Domenichino in the histories of St. Jerome in the portico of S. Onofrio. At p. 9 too he defends him in regard to the style of his folds, in which by some he was thought too scanty, and too hard in their disposition.
[32] This rivalship is questioned in many places by Malvasia, and denied by Orlandi, who in the article Francesco Albano, designates him as the sworn friend of Guido Reni, in close union with whom he prosecuted their delightful art; but this can only apply to their early years.