His fellow-pupils in the paternal school were four Clementine academicians, whose altar-pieces we find mentioned among the "Paintings of Bologna." These were Gian Girolamo Bonesi, who renounced both the name and style of Viani, in order to follow Cignani, and complained of being included in Viani's school. However this might be, his pictures pleased, by adding to the beautiful a peculiar delicacy and sweetness that characterize him. Carlo Rambaldi, imitating both the Viani, was not the less employed by Bonesi; and pictures of both are met with, especially half-length figures, in select galleries at Bologna, and a few historical pieces in the royal collection at Turin. Antonio Dardani possessed more universal talent than either of the preceding, but was not equally refined. Pietro Cavazzi was a fine connoisseur in prints, and only on this account was celebrated in Italy and abroad. Tronchi, Pancaldi, Montanari, with others, not admitted into the Clementine academy, may be found mentioned in Crespi. No one, I imagine, would desire an account of the under graduates, when the academicians who enjoyed the first rank, were many of them, according to Zanotti, only artists of mediocrity.
From the school of Cignani, to which I now proceed, scarcely any disciple issued who ultimately adhered to his style. A master, whose maxim it was to labour every picture, as if his entire reputation depended on it; who preferred to cancel, rather than retouch his less successful pieces, might, perhaps, have scholars, but not many emulators. Two of his family, however, imitated him; Count Felice his son, who long assisted him, particularly in the Cupola at Forli; and the Count Paolo his grandson, whom he, perhaps, instructed in the outset; while his father indisputably employed him at Forli, and Mancini at Rome. Both were gifted with facility of genius; but being sufficiently wealthy, they only devoted themselves to the art for the sake of the pleasure it afforded. Felice is seldom mentioned in the Guide to Bologna; in which, however, his St. Antony, at the Carità, meets with praise. At Forli is the altar-piece of St. Philip, by some ascribed to him, and by others to Count Carlo, in his declining years; so inferior is it to the best style of that artist. In collections his paintings are not rare; though appearing, like a young boy in the presence of his father. Of Count Paolo's I only recollect a single altar-piece at Savignano, representing St. Francis in the act of appearing to St. Joseph da Copertino, and putting a demon to flight. The scene appears illuminated by torch-light, and has a fine effect; and the figures, in regard to their studied and finished manner, display the taste of his grandfather.
After the relatives of Carlo comes Emilio Taruffi, his fellow-pupil with Albani, as well as his assistant, first at Bologna, in decorating the public hall, and next at Rome, where he resided three years, sometimes employed at S. Andrea della Valle, at others for private houses. No artist then better conformed to Cignani's style; and Taruffi could at least second him in painting histories. But his genius lay more in minor compositions. He was an excellent copyist of any ancient manner; a portrait painter of great spirit, and, in landscape, one of the best pupils formed by Albani. In these three branches he obtained his usual commissions, which he ever discharged with credit. He also conducted some altar-pieces, and that of S. Pier Celestino, at the church of that name, yields to few of the same period.
Cignani's most distinguished pupils and heads of new schools were Franceschini and Crespi. The Cav. Marcantonio Franceschini left the school of Gio. Batista Galli for that of Cignani, and became his most effective assistant and intimate friend. This friendship was cemented by his union with Cignani's cousin, sister of Quaini, whom I shall shortly again mention. Some productions of Franceschini might be taken for Cignani's himself; but these were among his earliest, before he had formed his characteristic manner. He remained with his friend many years, and possessing peculiar gracefulness of design, Cignani availed himself of it to draw from life the individual portions of his compositions, engaging him to consult various models, in order to select the best forms from each. By this study of nature, in which he persevered, and by copying from the designs and under the eye of his master, he attained much of the taste, the nice selectness, and the grandeur of Cignani. To these he added a certain grace of colouring, and a facility which gave a novel character to his productions; besides an originality, equal to any other artist, in the form of his heads, in his attitudes, and in the costume of his figures. His freshness, his harmony, his just equilibrium of full and retreating parts; in short, his whole style presents a glowing spectacle never before seen. If we trace in his works, especially on an extended scale, a degree of mannerism, it may almost be excused: would that his disciples had restrained themselves within the same limits! But easy roads to painting are like walking on a declivity, where it is difficult to count one's steps, or restrain one's motions. Franceschini seemed born to execute works on a large scale, fertile in ideas, and with facility to dispose them in every point of view, and to colour them at any distance. He was accustomed to compose his cartoons in chiaroscuro, and, having fixed them in the intended spot, to judge of the success of his proposed work; a method it would be desirable to inculcate and adopt more generally.
His large fresco paintings are numerous; the recess in the Ranuzzi palace, the cupola and ceiling in the church of Corpus Domini, the tribune of S. Bartolommeo at Bologna. Among those in other states we shall mention only the corbels of the cupola, with three histories, in the cathedral of Piacenza, and the grand ceiling of the Hall of Public Counsel at Genoa. This painting, of which it is enough to state that Mengs devoted many hours in examining it in detail, the noblest of Franceschini's performances, perished by fire, without a single engraving having been taken to commemorate its grandeur of conception. The same fertility of ideas and attraction of style are conspicuous in his grand histories, dispersed among the first galleries of Europe, and in his no less copious altar-pieces. Such is the S. Tommaso da Villanova, in the act of dispensing alms, placed at the Agostiniani di Rimini; a picture truly imposing by its magnificent workmanship, and which surprises by the beauty of its figures. What is equally surprising, the Cavalier Franceschini, when nearly an octogenarian, displayed pictorial powers equal to his best days; as we gather from his Pietà, at the Agostiniani of Imola, and his BB. Fondatori, at the Serviti in Bologna, which betray no traces of decline. This artist rejected the most advantageous offers from courts, which all vied in soliciting his services. Giordano even was not invited to that of Madrid, until the situation had been refused by Franceschini. He chose to reside in Upper Italy, there assuming the same rank, as head of his school, with almost the same success as Cortona in Lower Italy. Both schools adhered much to the Caracci's style, and in some measure rendered it more popular; and hence, those who at Rome are not familiar with the features and contrasts characteristic of Cortona's sect, would easily confound them with the more modern artists of Bologna.
Luigi Quaini, cousin to Carlo Cignani, and brother-in-law to Franceschini, was one of the most animated characters of his time; equally well versed in history, in architecture, and in poetry. The pupil, first of Guercino, next of Cignani, he was employed by the last as an assistant, and with such success, that, in painting, his hand could not be distinguished from that of his master. In distributing their labours to Franceschini and to Quaini, he ordered the former to paint the fleshes for the roundness and softness he gave to them; while to the latter he committed certain gay and spirited countenances, and a certain finishing of parts, in which, from his peculiar talent, he admirably succeeded. Later in life, he united with Franceschini, and leaving to him the inventive parts, he followed him in the style of the figures; inferior, doubtless, to that of Cignani, in force of chiaroscuro and colouring, but more attractive from its peculiar beauty and felicity. He would, afterwards, wholly ornament the composition by himself, with flowers, armour, beautiful landscape, and noble perspective; an art acquired from Francesco, his own father, a fine pupil of Mitelli. In this way did these two artists continue to paint, conjointly, at Bologna, at Modena, Piacenza, Genoa, and Rome; at which last place they composed some cartoons for the cupola of St. Peter's, which were afterwards executed in mosaic. Quaini also painted many historical pictures of his own invention. They decorate private houses; his only composition in public being his St. Nicholas visited in prison by our Lady, a beautiful altar-piece, occupying the best place in the church of that name.
Marcantonio's school, from which he also derived those assistants who followed Quaini, dates its commencement from his son, the Canon Jacopo Franceschini. The Bolognese historians only represent him in the character of an honorary academician; so that, by their account, I ought here to omit him. The Cav. Ratti, however, informs us that Marcantonio, coming to Genoa to adorn the church of S. Filippo, brought with him his son as his assistant, together with Giacomo Boni. In the same city, too, I saw a large history, in the hall of the Marchese Durazzo, as well as other pieces by him, well worthy commendation. At Bologna, also, are several paintings in public, all conducted in the style, and with the assistance of his father.
Boni was employed by Franceschini in many of his works, more particularly in that at Rome. He had been pupil also to Cignani, along with a few more, to be mentioned in the same school; under whose care he chiefly had in view works of a more difficult cast. Such was the ceiling of S. Maria della Costa, at S. Remo, and of S. Pier Celestino, at Bologna; besides several paintings at Genoa, where he became established. Two of his pictures, at the church of the Magdalen, met with great applause; namely, a Preaching at Gethsemane, and a Pietà. He more particularly distinguished himself in fresco; and in a chamber of his Excel. Pallavicini is an infant Jove, in the act of receiving nutriment from a goat, executed in the most elegant style. He was much employed in that capital, where, says Crespi, "there is neither palace, nor church, nor monastery, nor house, in which his works are not met with; all striking and commendable." Nor did he produce little at Brescia, at Parma, and at Remo; besides being honoured with commissions from Prince Eugene of Savoy, and the King of Spain, for whose chapel he forwarded an altar-piece. This artist sometimes betrays the haste of a mere mechanist, not completing fully, or polishing his work; besides colouring with a degree of lightness of hand which easily yields to age. Yet he always retains a delicacy and a precision in his contours, with a certain open spirit and joyousness which delight the eye.
Antonio Rossi never conducted works on so large a scale as Boni, but he surpassed him in diligence; which induced his master, when entrusting commissions to his pupils, to prefer him to any other. He exercised himself in painting pictures for churches, and greatly added to his reputation by his Martyrdom of S. Andrea, placed at S. Domenico. He was much occupied, also, with architectural pictures and landscape, to which he added small figures, so well adapted as to appear by the same hand. On this account he was an artist much liked by the artificers of similar representations, particularly by Orlandi and Brizzi. Girolamo Gatti was less employed for churches than Rossi, but is distinguished for small figure pieces, with one of which he decorated the hall of the Anziani. It exhibited the coronation of Charles V. in S. Petronio, and shewed the artist to be as good a figurist as a painter of perspective. Although educated by Franceschini, as we learn from the new Guide, he did not imitate his colouring: this he sought to attain from Cignani. Giuseppe Pedretti long resided in Poland; and on his return to Bologna executed a number of works in a good style. Giacinto Garofolini, a pupil and kinsman of Marcantonio, displayed very middling ability when employed alone; but in conjunction with his relative, and with Boni, he conducted various works in fresco, from which he is entitled to what reputation he obtained. To these Bolognese artists and academicians various foreigners might be added, as one Gaetano Frattini, known at Ravenna by some altar-pieces at the Corpus Domini, and a few others whom we have referred to different schools. We shall now return to that of Cignani.
Giuseppe Maria Crespi, whom for his neatness of attire his fellow pupils surnamed Lo Spagnuolo, was instructed first by Canuti, next by Cignani; being early grounded in the best principles of taste. With unwearied assiduity he copied the Caracci paintings at Bologna; and at his leisure studied those of the first Venetians in that capital. He examined, too, Coreggio's at Modena and Parma, and long sojourned in Urbino and Pesaro to consult the works of Baroccio. Some of these he copied, and sold at Bologna for the originals. His object invariably was, to form a new manner out of many others, which he accomplished; at some times Baroccio would be his most admired model; at another, when he wished to employ more shade, he chose Guercino; nor did he dislike Cortona in respect to taste of composition. To the examples, too, of the dead, he added the observation of the living; and was averse, if we may credit his son, to the labours of a mere mechanist. He drew every thing from nature, and even had a camera optica in his house, from which he copied the objects that offered themselves to view, and remarked the various play and picturesque reflections of the vivid light. His compositions, indeed, teem with these novelties, and his shortenings also are as singular; so that he often places a number of figures in a small space, while the conceptions which he interweaves in his pictures, are more peculiarly fanciful.