Dosso survived Gio. Batista some years, during which he continued to paint, and to form pupils, until infirmity and old age compelled him to desist. The productions of this school are recognised in Ferrara by their resemblance of style; and from their great number it is conjectured that the Dossi directed the works, while their assistants and disciples executed them. Few of these however are known, and among them one Evangelista Dossi, who has nothing to recommend him but his name, and whose works Scannelli did not care to point out to posterity. Jacopo Pannicciati, by birth a noble, is mentioned by historians as a first rate imitator of the Dossi, though he painted little, and died young, about the year 1540. Niccolo Rosselli, much employed at Ferrara, has been supposed to belong to this school, from his resemblance in some pictures to Dosso, particularly in that of Christ with two angels, on an altar of the Battuti Bianchi. But in his twelve altar-pieces at the Certosa, he imitated also Benvenuto and Bagnacavallo, with several other artists. His school, then, must remain uncertain; the more so as his composition, so very laboured, soft, and minute, with reddish tints like those of crayons, leaves it even doubtful whether he studied at Ferrara at all. The same taste was displayed by Leonardo Brescia, more a merchant than a painter; from which some have supposed him Roselli's pupil.
Better known than these is the name of Caligarino, in other words the little shoe-maker, a title derived from his first profession. His real name was Gabriel Cappellini; and one of the Dossi having said, in praise of a pair of shoes made by him, that they seemed to be painted, he took the hint and relinquished his awl to embrace his new profession. The old Guide of Ferrara extols his bold design and the strength of his colours. The best that now remains is his picture of the Virgin between two Saints John, at S. Giovannino; the ground of which has been retouched, or rather spoiled. An altar-piece, in good preservation, is also ascribed to him in S. Alessandro, at Bergamo, representing our Lord's Supper. The manner partakes in some degree of that of the fourteenth century, though very exact and boasting good tints. In time, however, he approached nearer to the moderns, as we gather from another Holy Supper, a small picture in possession of Count Carrara. This new style has led to the supposition that he was pupil to Paul Veronese, which it is difficult to believe respecting an artist who was already employed in his art as early as 1520.
Gio. Francesco Surchi, called Dielai, was pupil and assistant to the Dossi, when employed in painting at Belriguardo, at Belvedere, at the Giovecca, and at Cepario, in which palaces they gave the most distinguished proofs of their merit. Thus instructed by both brothers, he became perhaps the most eminent figurist among his fellow-pupils, and beyond question the best ornamental painter. He left few specimens in the second branch, but many in the first. In rapidity, vivacity, and grace in his figures, he approaches Dosso, and in a similar manner in his easy and natural mode of draping. In the warmth of his colouring, and in his strong lights, he even aimed at surpassing him; but, like most young artists who carry to excess the maxims of their schools, he became crude and inharmonious, at least in some of his works. Two of his Nativities at Ferrara are highly extolled, one at the Benedettini, the other at S. Giovannino, to which last is added the portrait of Ippolito Riminaldi, a distinguished civilian of his age. Writers are divided in opinion respecting the comparative excellence of these two altar-pieces, but they agree in awarding great merit to both.
We proceed to treat of Benvenuto, another great luminary of this school; and we must first premise that there are some mistakes as to his name, which has often betrayed our dilettanti into errors. Besides Benvenuto Tisio, surnamed from his country Garofolo, there flourished at the same period Gio. Batista Benvenuti, by some said to have been also a native of Garofolo, and from his father's occupation denominated Ortolano, the gardener. Now, by many, he has been confounded with Tisio, both from resemblance of name and taste, so far as to have had even his portrait mistaken for the former, and as such inserted in Vasari's edition that appeared at Bologna. There Ortolano had pursued his studies about 1512, from the works of Raffaello, which were few, and from those of Bagnacavallo, whose style he afterwards emulated in some pictures. Leaving that place sooner than he had intended, owing to an act of homicide, he never attained to a complete imitation of Raffaello. But he excelled in his taste for design and perspective, united to more robust colouring, observes Baruffaldi, than what we see in Raffaello himself, and it is habitual in this school during nearly the whole of the sixteenth century. Several of his altar-pieces have been transferred into the Roman galleries, where in the present day they are attributed, I believe, to Tisio, whose first manner, being more careful than soft and tasteful, may easily be mistaken for that of Ortolano. There are others at Ferrara, both in public and private, and one in the usual old style of composition at S. Niccolo, with the date affixed of 1520. In the parochial church of Bondeno there is another, which is extolled by Scannelli (p. 319), in which are represented the Saints Sebastian and Rocco, and Demetrius, who, in military dress, is seen leaning on the hilt of his sword, absorbed in thought; the whole attitude so picturesque and real as at once to attract the eye of the beholder.
We cannot be surprised that his name should have been eclipsed by Tisio, an artist deservedly extolled as the most eminent among Ferrarese painters. Of him we have treated rather at length in the Roman School, both as occupying a high station in the list of Raffaello's pupils, and as the one most frequently met with in the Roman collections. We have a little before mentioned Benvenuto's first education under Panetti, from whose school he went to Cremona, under Niccolo Soriani, his maternal uncle, and next under Boccaccio Boccacci. On Niccolo's death, in 1499, he fled from Cremona, and first resided during fifteen months in Rome, with Gian Baldini, a Florentine. Thence he travelled through various Italian cities, remained two years with Costa in Mantua, and then returning for a short space to Ferrara, finally proceeded back to Rome. These circumstances I here give, on account of a number of Benvenuto's works being met with in Ferrara and elsewhere, which partake little or nothing of the Roman style, though not excluded as apocryphal, as they are attributed to his earlier age. After remaining a few years with Raffaello, his domestic affairs recalled him to Ferrara; having arranged these, he prepared to return to Rome, where his great master anxiously awaited him, according to Vasari, in order to accomplish him in the art of design. But the solicitations of Panetti, and still more, the commissions of Duke Alfonso, retained him in his native place, engaged with the Dossi in immense undertakings at Belriguardo and other places. It is observed by Baruffaldi, that the degree of Raffaellesque taste to be traced in the two brothers' works, is to be attributed to Tisio. He conducted a great number of other paintings, both in fresco and in oil.
His most happy period dates from 1519, when he painted in S. Francesco the Slaughter of the Innocents; availing himself of earthen models, and copying draperies, landscape, and in short every thing from the life. In the same church is his Resurrection of Lazarus, and his celebrated Taking of Christ, commenced in 1520, and finished in 1524. No better works appeared from his hand, nor better composed, more animated, conducted with more care and softness of colouring. There only remains some trace of the fourteenth century, in point of design; and some little affectation of grace, if the opinion of Vasari be correct. The district formerly abounded with similar specimens of his in fresco; and they are also met with in private, as that frieze in a chamber of the Seminary, which in point of grace and Raffaellesque taste is well deserving of being engraved. Many of his works, also, in oil remain, exhibited here and there throughout the churches and collections of Ferrara; at once so many and so beautiful as alone to suffice for the decoration of a city. His St. Peter Martyr was more particularly admired by Vasari; a picture ornamenting the Dominicans, remarkable for its force, which some professors have supposed to have been painted in competition with St. Peter Martyr, by Titian; and in case of its loss to have been able to supply its place. His Helen, too, a picture of a more elegant character, at the same place, is greatly admired; this gracefulness forming one of Benvenuto's most peculiar gifts. And, indeed, not a few of his Madonnas, his Virgins, and his boys, which he painted in his softer manner, have occasionally been mistaken for Raffaello's. His picture of the Princes Corsini deceived good judges, as we are informed by Bottari; and the same might have happened with the portrait of the Duke of Modena, and others scattered through the Roman galleries, where are many of his pieces on a large scale, particularly in the Chigi palace. All these must be kept in view, in forming an estimate of Garofolo. His little pictures, consisting of scriptural histories, are very abundant in different cabinets, (Prince Borghesi himself being in possession of about forty) and although they bear his mark, a gilly-flower or violet, they were, I suspect, merely the production of his leisure hours. Those without such impress are frequently works of Panelli, who was employed along with him; often copies or repetitions by his pupils, who must have been numerous during so long a period. Baruffaldi gives him Gio. Francesco Dianti, of whom he mentions an altar-piece at the Madonnina, in the style of Garofolo, and his tomb, also at the same place, with the date of his decease in 1576. Batista Griffi and Bernardin Flori, known only by some ancient legal instrument belonging to the period of 1520, do not seem to have surpassed mediocrity; which is also remarked by Vasari of all the others who sprung from the same school. We may except a third, mentioned in the same legal act, and this was Carpi, of whom I shall now proceed to treat.
It is uncertain whether the proper title of Girolamo be da Carpi, as stated by Vasari, or de' Carpi, as is supposed by Superbi; questions wholly frivolous, inasmuch as his friend Vasari did not call him a native of Carpi, but of Ferrara; and Giraldi, in the edition of his Orbecche and of his Egle, premised that the painter of the scene was Mes. Girolamo Carpi, from Ferrara. And in this city he was instructed by Garofolo, whose young attendant, in the parchment before cited, he is said to have been in 1520. He afterwards went to Bologna, where he was a good deal employed in portrait painting; until happening to meet with a small picture by Coreggio, he became attached to that style, copying every piece he could meet with, both at Modena and Parma, by the same hand. From Vasari's account we are to conclude that he was never acquainted with Coreggio, Raffaello, and Parmigianino, whatever other writers may have said. It is true he imitated them; and from the latter, more particularly, he derived those very gracefully clasped and fringed garments; and those airs of heads, which, however, appear rather more solid and less attractive. On removing to Bologna, in addition to what he conducted in company with Pupini, he singly executed a Madonna with S. Rocco and other saints, for S. Salvatore; and an Epiphany, with smaller figures, full of grace, and partaking of the best Roman and Lombard manner, for the church of S. Martino. Returning at length to Ferrara, he conducted, along with his master, several pictures in fresco, particularly in the ducal Palazzina, and in the church of the Olivetani, where Baruffaldi clearly recognised his style, invariably more loaded with shadow than that of Benvenuto. In 1534 he himself represented, in a loggia of the ducal palace of Copario, the sixteen princes of Este; twelve of whom with the title of marquis, the rest as dukes, had swayed the sceptre of Ferrara. The last was Ercole II., who committed that work to Girolamo, honourable to him for the animation and propriety of the portraits, for the decoration of the termini, of the landscape, and of the perspective, with which he adorned that loggia. Titian himself had raised Carpi in that prince's consideration; not at the time when he came to Ferrara to continue the work of Bellini, since Girolamo was then only a child, but when he returned at another period; and this I mention in order to correct one of Vasari's mistaken dates.
His altar-pieces in oil are extremely rare; the Pentecost at S. Francesco di Rovigo, and the S. Antonio at S. Maria in Vado di Ferrara, are the most copious, and perhaps the most celebrated which he produced. He was employed also for collections, mostly on tender and graceful subjects; but there too he is rarely to be met with. His diligence, the commissions of his sovereigns, the study of architecture, a profession in which he served Pope Julius III. and Duke Ercole II., his brief career, all prevented him from leaving many productions for the ornament of cabinets. In his style of figures he had no successors: in the art of decorating with feigned bassi-relievi, colonnades, cornices, niches, and similar architectural labours, he was rivalled by Bartolommeo Faccini, who in that manner embellished the grand court-yard of the palace. He afterwards painted there, as Carpi had done elsewhere, the Princes of Este, or more correctly, placed in the niches a bronze statue of each of them; in constructing which work he fell from the scaffolding, and died in 1577. He was assisted in the same labour by his brother Girolamo, by Ippolito Casoli, and Girolamo Grassaleoni, all of whom continued to serve their native place in quality of ornamental painters.
Whilst Benvenuto and Girolamo were thus bent on displaying all the attractions of the art, there was rising into notice, from the school of Michelangiolo at Rome, one who aspired only to the bold and terrible; a character not much known to the artists of Ferrara up to that period. His name was Bastiano Filippi, familiarly called Bastianino, and surnamed Gratella,[59] from his custom of covering large pictures with crossed lines, in order to reduce them with exactness to a small scale; which he acquired from Michelangiolo, and was the first to introduce into Ferrara. He was son to Camillo, an artist of uncertain school, but who, in the opinion of Bononi, "painted with neatness and clearness, as in his Annunziata at S. Maria in Vado;" in the ground of which is a half-figure of St. Paul, which leads to the conjecture, that Camillo aspired to the style of Michelangiolo. It would seem, therefore, that Bastiano imbibed from his father his ardent attachment to that style, on account of which he secretly withdrew from his father's house, and went to Rome, where he became one of the most indefatigable copyists and a favourite disciple of Bonarruoti. How greatly he improved may be seen in his picture of the Last Judgment at Ferrara, completed in three years, in the choir of the Metropolitana; a work so nearly approaching Michelangiolo that the whole Florentine School can boast nothing of the kind. It displays grand design, great variety of figures, fine grouping, and very pleasing repose. It seems incredible that, in a theme already treated by Michelangiolo, Filippi should have succeeded in producing such novel and grand effect. Like all true imitators, he evidently aimed at copying the genius and spirit, not the figures of his model. He abused the occasion here afforded him, like Dante and Michelangiolo, to gratify his friends by placing them among the elect, and to revenge himself on those who had offended him, by giving their portraits in the group of the damned. On this unhappy list, too, he placed a young lady who had broken her vows to him; elevating among the blessed, in her stead, a more faithful young woman whom he married, and representing the latter in the act of gazing on her rival with looks of scorn. Baruffaldi and other Ferrarese prefer this painting before that of the Sistine chapel, in point of grace and colouring; concerning which, the piece having been retouched, we can form no certain opinion. There is, moreover, the testimony of Barotti, the describer of the Ferrarese paintings, who, at page 40, complains, that "while formerly those figures appeared like living flesh, they now seem of wood." But other proofs of Filippi's colouring are not wanting at Ferrara; where, in many of his untouched pictures, he appears to much advantage; except that in his fleshes he was greatly addicted to a sun-burnt colour; and often, for the union of his colours, he overshadowed in a peculiar taste the whole of his painting.
Besides this, his masterpiece, Filippi produced a great number of other pictures at Ferrara, in whose Guide he is more frequently mentioned than any artist, except Scarsellino. Where he represented naked figures, as in his grand S. Cristofano at the Certosa, he adhered to Michelangiolo; in his draped figures he followed other models; which is perceptible in that Circumcision in an altar of the cathedral, which might rather be attributed to his father than to him. Being impatient, both in regard to invention and to painting, he often repeated the same things; as he did in one of his Annunciations, reproduced at least seven times, almost invariably with the same ideas. What is worse, if we except the foregoing Judgment, his large altar-piece of St. Catharine, in that church, with a few other public works, he conducted no pieces without losing himself either in one part or other; satisfied with stamping upon each some commanding trait, as if to exhibit himself as a fine but careless painter to the eyes of posterity. There are few of his specimens in collections, but these are more exactly finished. Of these, without counting those of Ferrara, I have seen a Baptism of Christ in Casa Acqua at Osimo, and several copies from Michelangiolo at Rome. Early in life he painted grotesques, but subsequently employed in such labours, Cesare, his younger brother, a very excellent ornamental painter, though feeble in great figures and in histories.