Contemporary with, and rival of Filippi, was Sigismondo Scarsella, popularly called by the Ferrarese Mondino, a name he has ever since retained. Instructed during three years in the school of Paul Veronese, and afterwards remaining for thirteen at Venice, engaged in studying its best models along with the rules of architecture, he at length returned to Ferrara, well practised in the Paolesque style, but at considerable distance as a disciple. If we except his Visitation at S. Croce, fine figures and full of action, we meet with nothing more by him in the last published Guide of Ferrara. The city possesses other of his works, some in private, some retouched in such a manner that they are no more the same, while several are doubtful, and most commonly attributed to his son. This is the celebrated Ippolito, called, in distinction from his father, Lo Scarsellino, by whom singly there are more pictures interspersed throughout those churches, than by many combined artists. After acquiring the first rudiments from Sigismondo, he resided almost six years at Venice, studying the best masters, and in particular Paul Veronese. His fellow-citizens call him the Paul of their school, I suppose on account of his Nativity of the Virgin at Cento, his S. Bruno, in the Ferrarese Certosa, and other paintings more peculiarly Paolesque; but his character is different. He seems the reformer of the paternal taste; his conceptions more beautiful, his tints more attractive; while some believe that he influenced the manner of Sigismondo, and directed him in his career. On comparison with Paul it is clear that his style is derived from that source, but that his own was different, being composed of the Venetian and the Lombard, of native and foreign, the offspring of an intellect well founded in the theory of the art, of a gay and animated fancy, of a hand if not always equal to itself, always prompt, spirited, and rapid. Hence we see a great number of his productions in different cities of Lombardy and Romagna, to say nothing of his native place.
There, his pictures of the Assumption and the Nuptials of Cana, at the Benedettini; the Pietà, and the S. John Beheaded, in that church; with the Noli me tangere, at S. Niccolo, are among the most celebrated; also at the Oratorio della Scala, his Pentecost, his Annunciation, and his Epiphany, conducted in competition with the Presentation of Annibal Caracci; of all which there are seen, on a small scale, a number of repetitions or copies in private houses. They are to be met with too at Rome, where Scarsellino's paintings are not rare. Some are at the Campidoglio, and at the palaces of the Albani, Borghesi, Corsini, and in greater number at the Lancellotti. I have sometimes examined them in company with professors who never ceased to extol them. They recognised various imitations of Paul Veronese in the inventions, and the copiousness; of Parmigianino in the lightness and grace of the figures: of Titian in the fleshes, and particularly in a Bacchanal in Casa Albani; of Dossi and Carpi in his strength of colour, in those fiery yellows, in those deep rose-colours, in that bright tinge given also to the clouds and to the air. What sufficiently distinguishes him too, are a few extremely graceful countenances, which he drew from two of his daughters; a light shading which envelopes the whole of his objects without obscuring them, and that slightness of design which borders almost on the dry, in opposition, perhaps, to that of Bastiano Filippi, sometimes reproached with exhibiting coarse and heavy features.
Ippolito's school, according to Baruffaldi, produced no other pupil of merit except Camillo Ricci, a young artist who, Scarsellino declared, would have surpassed himself, and whom, had he appeared a little later, he would have selected for his own master. From a pupil, however, he became Scarsellino's assistant, who instructed him so well in his manner, that the most skilful had difficulty to distinguish him from Ippolito. His style is almost as tender and attractive as his master's, the union of his colours is even more equal, and has more repose, and he is principally distinguished by less freedom of hand, and by his folding, which is less natural and more minute. His fertile invention appears to most advantage in the church of S. Niccolò, whose entablature is divided into eighty-four compartments, the whole painted by Camillo with different histories of the holy bishop. His picture of Margherita, also at the cathedral, is extremely beautiful, and might be referred to Scarsellino himself. His smaller paintings chiefly adorn the noble house of Trotti, which abounds with them; and there too is his own portrait, as large as life, representing Genius naked, seated before his pallet with his pencil in hand, surrounded by musical books, and implements of sculpture and architecture, arts to which he was wholly devoted. Among the pupils of Ippolito, Barotti enumerates also Lana, a native of Codigoro, in the Ferrarese, though I leave him to the state of Modena, where he flourished. Cittadella also mentions Ercole Sarti, called the mute of Ficarolo, a place in the Ferrarese. Instructed by signs he produced for his native place, and at the Quadrella sul Mantovano, some pictures nearly resembling the style of Scarsellino, except that the outline is more marked, and the countenances less beautiful. He was also a good portrait painter, and was employed by the nobility at Ferrara as well as for the churches. There is mentioned, in the Guide, an altar-piece in the sacristy of S. Silvestro, and the author is extolled as a successful imitator both of Scarsellino and of Bononi.
Contemporary with the Filippi and the Scarsellini is Giuseppe Mazzuoli, more commonly called Bastaruolo, or, as it means in Ferrara, the vender of corn, an occupation of his father's, not his own. He is at once a learned, graceful, and correct artist, probably a pupil of Surchi, whom he succeeded in painting for the entablature of the Gesù some histories left unfinished by the death of his predecessor. Mazzuoli was not so well skilled in perspective as in other branches. He injured his rising reputation by designing some figures in too large proportion, owing to which, added to his slowness, he became proverbial among his rivals, and considered by many as an artist of mediocrity. Yet his merit was sufficiently marked, particularly after the formation of his second manner, more elevated in design, as well as more studied in its colouring. The foundation of his taste is drawn from the Dossi; in force of chiaroscuro, and in his heads he would seem to have owed his education to Parma; in the natural colour of his fleshes, more particularly at the extremities, he approaches Titian; and from the Venetians too seem to have been derived those varying tints and golden hues, introduced into his draperies. The church of Gesù contains, besides two medallions of histories, admirably composed, an Annunciation and a Crucifixion, both very beautiful altar-pieces. The Ascension at the Cappuccini, conducted for a princess of the Estense family, is a magnificent piece, while an altar-piece of the titular saint, with half figures of virgins that seem to breathe, at the Zitelle of S. Barbara, is extremely beautiful. Several other pieces, both in public and private, are met with at Ferrara. Mazzuoli was drowned, while bathing for his health, at that place; an artist every way worthy of a better fate, and of being more generally known beyond the limits of his own country.
Domenico Mona (a name thus read by Baruffaldi from his tomb, though by others called Monio, Moni, and Monna,) attached himself to the art after trying many other professions, ecclesiastical, medical, and legal. He possessed great fervour and richness of imagination, learning, and rapidity of hand. Instructed by Bastaruolo, he soon became a painter, and exhibited his pieces in public. But not yet founded in technical rules, monotonous in his heads, hard in his folding, and unfinished in his figures, he was ill adapted to please a city already accustomed to behold the most finished productions at every step, so as no longer to relish any thing like mediocrity or inferiority of hand. Mona then applied with fresh diligence to the art, and corrected, at least, some of his more glaring faults. From that time he was more readily employed by his fellow citizens, though his works were by no means equally approved. Some, however, were good, such as the two Nativities at S. Maria in Vado, one of which represented the Virgin, the other the Divine Child; both displaying a taste of colouring nearly resembling the Florentine of that period, here and there mingled with a Venetian tone. The best of all, however, is his Deposition from the Cross, placed in the Sagrestia Capitolare of the cathedral. A number of others only approach mediocrity, though still pleasing by their spirit, and a general effect which proclaims superior genius. Even his colouring, when he studied it, is calculated to attract by its warmth and vividness, though not very natural. A few of his works are in such bad taste as to have induced his pupil, Jacopo Bambini, out of compassion, to retouch them; and Baruffaldi also notices this singular inequality. For, after greatly extolling his Deposition from the Cross, he adds: "It must surprise the spectator to contrast this with his other pieces, nor can he reconcile how he should possess such capacity, and yet show such indifference for his own fame." All, however, is explained when we know that he was naturally subject to insanity, of which he finally became the victim, and having slain a courtier of the Card. Aldobrandino, he ended his days in banishment from his native place. By some, however, the deed was attributed, not to insanity, but to hatred of the new government; and in fact, so far from acting like a madman, he concealed himself, first in the state, and next at the court of Modena. Finally, he sought refuge in that of Parma, where he is declared to have produced pieces, during a short period, in his best taste. Orlandi calls him Domenico Mora, and has extolled his two large pictures of the Conversion and the Martyrdom of St. Paul, which adorn the presbytery of that church at Ferrara. He moreover adds, that he flourished in 1570, for which date I am inclined to substitute that of 1580, as it is known that he commenced the practice of the art late in life, and died, aged fifty-two years, in 1602.
From his school is supposed to have sprung Gaspero Venturini, who completed his education under Bernardo Castelli, in Genoa. This, however, is mere conjecture, founded on the style of Gaspero, which, in point of colouring, partakes of that ideal taste so pleasing to Castelli, to Vasari, Fontana, Galizia, and others of the same period; nor was Mona himself free from it. Jacopo Bambini, whom we have before commended, and Giulio Cromer, commonly called Croma, were assuredly from the school of Mona, though they acquired little from it. Subsequently they became more correct designers by studying from the naked model in the academy, which they were the first to open at Ferrara, and from the best antiques which they possessed in their native place—an art in which they attained singular excellence. Nor were they destitute of invention; and to Cromer was allotted the honour of painting the Presentation and the Death of the Virgin, at the Scala; a fraternity, which, previous to its suppression, was regarded as a celebrated gallery, decorated by superior artists. Bambini had studied also in Parma, whence he brought back with him a careful and solid style; and, if he sometimes displayed the colouring of Mona, he corrected its hardness, and excluded its capriciousness. This artist was assiduously employed at the Gesù, in Ferrara, and in that at Mantua. Croma was a painter of high reputation, and much inclined to the study of architecture, which he introduces in rather an ostentatious manner in nearly all his pictures. In other respects he more resembles Bambini than Mona, invariably studied, ruddy in his complexions, somewhat loaded in all his tints, and the whole composition sufficiently characteristic to be easily distinguished. He may be well appreciated in his large histories of the saint at St. Andrea, near the chief altar, and in several pictures belonging to the minor altars. Superbi, in his Apparato, describes one Gio. Andrea Ghirardoni as an able artist. He left some respectable works, but coloured in a languid, feeble style, with more of the effect of chiaroscuro than of painting. The names of Bagnacavallo, Rossetti, Provenzali da Cento, and others belonging to the Ferrarese state, who properly appertain to this epoch, have been already described under other schools.