[55] Malvasia, vol. ii. p. 265.
[56] Previous to the present edition, Gaetano Gandolfi breathed his last; Ubaldo, his elder brother, having already preceded him to the tomb, at the time he was preparing to decorate the cupola of S. Vitale in Ravenna. Ubaldo had been pupil to Torelli, to Graziani, and in particular under Lelli had exercised his talents in drawing successfully from the naked model, and to such a foundation added dignity of style. Of this, several works in painting conducted with extreme care, as well as some in clay and stucco, at Bologna, and other places in Romagna, are the proof. But to judge more particularly of his merits, we ought to examine his academical designs. In his ideas he was common, and not very natural in his colouring, and generally considered on this account inferior to his brother Gaetano, who was esteemed in Italy one of the most able artists of his day. Bologna, always grateful to its eminent citizens, expressed at his decease the degree of esteem in which he was held while living. His obsequies, of which a separate account was published in folio, equal what we read in Malvasia respecting those of Agostino Caracci; and the oration there recited in his praise by Sig. Grilli, deserves insertion in any of the most select works written on the art. There too, Gandolfi, very judiciously, is not held up as a model in painting; a forbearance which he himself displayed, even refusing to receive pupils, and observing that he was himself in want of instruction. Yet from the influence of his great reputation he was frequently imitated, and, as it happened, with most success in his worst qualities, more particularly in his tints. In this respect he had been ill grounded by his elder brother; but improved himself by studying for the space of a year at the fountain head of colourists, in Venice, and by copying for a Venetian dilettante the finest pieces of the Caracci at Bologna. It is difficult to account for his fine colouring in some paintings, equal at least to the good artists of his time, and his inferior colouring in others, as that of the Death of Socrates, at Monsig. Trenta's, bishop of Foligno. It is feeble and deficient in truth, owing either to caprice or to age. In his preparations of paintings he was more commendable: his first conceptions were sketched on slate with pencil, and more carefully on paper. He next began to select; modelled the figures in chalk, and draped them; afterwards forming the design on a large scale, and by aid of his experiments, and of the living model, he went on completing and retouching his work. He has been accused of borrowing a little too freely from ancient models; but whoever had seen him, aged as he was, devoting himself in the public academy to the practice of modelling, will not unjustly confound him with those plagiarists, so notorious in our own day. Moreover, he may be pronounced inimitable to most artists, in those rare gifts, which nature had lavished upon him: enthusiasm, fertility of invention, sensibility, and skill in depicting the passions; to which he added a correct eye, and ability both to design and compose, in the decoration of friezes for the institute, exotic plants and other rarities of nature, as well as to engrave with much elegance, and skill to paint in oil as well as in fresco. A really impartial biographer must pass his opinion on every man, and let his verdict result from an examination of his masterpieces. Such belonging to Gandolfi are his Assumption, in the ceiling at S. M. della Vita, and the Nuptials of Cana, at the refectory of S. Salvatore in Bologna; not to insist on the Martyrdom of S. Pantaleone, at the church of the Girolimini in Naples, with some other works scattered through various parts of Italy.
BOOK IV.
SCHOOL OF FERRARA.
EPOCH I.
The Ancients.
Ferrara, once the capital of a small principality under the dukes of Este, but, since the year 1597, reduced into a legation, dependant upon the see of Rome, lays claim to a series of excellent artists, greatly superior to its power and population. This, however, will appear less extraordinary, if we call to mind the number of its illustrious poets, commencing even before the time of Boiardo and Ariosto, and continued down to our own days; a sure indication of national genius, equally fervid, elegant, and inventive, adapted, more than common, to the cultivation of the agreeable arts. Added to this felicity of disposition was the good taste prevalent in the city, which, in its distribution of public labours, or its approbation of their results, was directed by learned and enlightened men, of whom it could boast in every department. Thus the artists have in general observed appropriate costume, kept their attention on history, and composed in such a manner that a classical eye, particularly in their paintings in the ducal palaces, recognizes the image of that antiquity of which it has previously obtained a knowledge from books. The conveniences of its site, also, have been favourable to the progress of painting at Ferrara; which, situated near Venice, Parma, and Bologna, not far from Florence, and at no very great distance from Rome itself, has afforded facility to its students for selecting from the Italian schools what was most conformable to the peculiar genius of each. Hence the origin of so many beautiful manners as adorn this school; some imitating only one classic master, others composed of various styles; so that Giampietro Zanotti was in doubt whether, after the five leading schools of Italy, that of Ferrara did not surpass every other. It is not my purpose to decide the question, nor could it be done without giving offence to one or other of the parties. I shall here only attempt a brief history of this school upon the same plan as the rest; and I shall include a few artists of Romagna, agreeably to my promise in the preceding book, or, to speak more correctly, in its introduction.
The most valuable information which I have to insert will be extracted from a precious MS. communicated to me by the Ab. Morelli, the distinguished ornament of his age and country, no less than of the learned office he fills.[57] This MS. contains the lives of Ferrarese professors of the fine arts, written by Doctor Girolamo Baruffaldi, first a canon of Ferrara, next archpriest of Cento. To these is prefixed a laboured preface by Pierfrancesco Zanotti, with copious emendations and notes by the Canon Crespi. Such a work, drawn up by this polished writer, and thus approved, continued, and illustrated by two men of the profession, was long a desideratum in Italy; nor do I know why it never made its appearance. A specimen, indeed, was given by Bottari, at the end of his Life of Alfonso Lombardi, in the course of which he inserted the life of Galasso, and of a few other artists of Ferrara. Moreover, in the fourth volume of the "Lettere Pittoriche," he published a letter of the deceased Can. Antenore Scalabrini, relating to Baruffaldi's[TN12] MS., which underwent this noble ecclesiastic's corrections, communicated by him to Crespi, who inserted them in his annotations. Baruffaldi, also, having commenced the lives of the artists of Cento, and of Lower Romagna, a work left unfinished, Crespi supplied all it wanted; and it has been mentioned by us in the school of Guercino, and among some artists who flourished at Ravenna and other cities of Romagna. Cittadella, author of the "Catalogue of Ferrarese Painters and Sculptors," (edited in 1782, in 4 vols.) declares that he drew his chief information from Baruffaldi, (vol. iii. p. 140). He complains, however, in the preface, that a more correct work being either destroyed or lost, (alluding probably to this work with Crespi's notes), "he has not been in possession of such undoubted authorities as might be desired;" a very candid admission, fully entitled to credit. But this work having come into my possession, through the courtesy of my learned friend, I shall avail myself of it for public information. On such authority I shall freely ground this part of my history, adding notices drawn from other sources, and not unfrequently from the Guide of Ferrara, published by the learned Frizzi, in 1787; a work that may be included among the best yet given to Italy. So much we state by way of exordium.
The Ferrarese School took its twin origin, so to say, with that of Venice, if we may credit a monumental testimony, cited by Dr. Ferrante Borsetti, in his work called "Historia almi Ferrariensis Gymnasii," published in 1735. This memorial was extracted from an ancient codex of Virgil, written in 1193; which, according to Baruffaldi, passed from the library of the Carmelites at Ferrara, into the possession of the Counts Alvarotti at Padua, whose books, in course of time, were added to the library of the Paduan seminary. At the end of this codex is read the name of Gio. Alighieri, the miniaturist of this volume; and in the last page there had afterwards been added, in the ancient vulgar tongue, the following memorial:—that in 1242, Azzo d'Este, first lord of Ferrara, committed to one Gelasio di Niccolo, a painting of the Fall of Phaeton; and from him too Filippo, bishop of Ferrara, ordered an image of our Lady, and an ensign of St. George, which was used in going to meet Tiepolo, when he was despatched by the Venetian republic as ambassador to Ferrara. Gelasio is there stated to belong to the district of St. George, and to have been pupil in Venice to Teofane of Constantinople, which induced Zanetti to place this Greek at the head of the masters of his school. On the authority of so many learned men, to whom such memorial appeared genuine, I am led to give it credit; although it contains some marks that, at first sight, appear suspicious. I have further made inquiries after it in the Paduan seminary, but it is not to be found there.