EPOCH I.
Dawn of the Art, and Progress to the Sixteenth Century.
Piedmont, like the other states of Italy, cannot boast of a series of ancient masters; but it does not on that account forfeit its claim to a place in the history of painting. That enchanting art, the daughter of peace and contemplation, shuns not only the sound but the very rumour of war. Piedmont, from her natural position, is a warlike country; and if she enjoys the merit of having afforded to the other parts of Italy the protection necessary for the cultivation of the fine arts, she is at the same time under the disadvantage of not being able to insure them safety in her own territory. Hence, though Turin has ever been fruitful in talent, to obtain the decorations suitable to a metropolis, she has been compelled to seek at a distance for painters, or at least for pictures; and whatever we find excellent either in the palace or the royal villas, in the churches, in the public buildings, or in private collections, will be found to be wholly the work of foreigners. I may be told that the artists of Novara and Vercelli, and others from the Lago Maggiore, are not strangers. That might be true after those communities were included in the dominions of the house of Savoy; but they, who were the first in this epoch, were born, lived, and died subjects of other states: and after the new conquests, these artists no more became Piedmontese from that circumstance, than Parrhasius and Apelles became Romans from the moment that Greece was subjected to Rome. For this reason I have classed these artists in the Milanese School; to which, though they had not belonged as subjects, they ought still to be assigned by education, residence, or neighbourhood. This plan I have hitherto persevered in: the subject of my history being not the states of Italy, but her schools of painting. Nor on that account will the artists of Monferrato be excluded from this place. This is also a recent addition to the house of Savoy, which first possessed it in 1706; but it is anterior to the other acquisitions, and its artists are scarcely ever named among the pupils of the Milanese School. We must also recollect that they either left many works in Piedmont, and that this is therefore the proper place to mention them, or that they did not quit their native country; and as it is impracticable to devote a separate book to that place, I have judged it best to include it in this state, on the confines of which it is situated, and to which it eventually became subject.
Confining ourselves therefore to the ancient state of Piedmont, and noticing also Savoy, and other neighbouring territories not yet considered, we shall find little written of,[71] nor have we much to praise in the artists; but the ruling family, who have been always distinguished by their love of the arts, and have used all their influence to foster them, are entitled to our grateful recollections. At the time of their first revival Amadeus IV. invited to his court one Giorgio da Firenze, a scholar, I know not whether of Giotto or some other master: it is however certain that he painted in the castle of Chambery in 1314, and we find remains of him to 1325, in which year he worked at Pinarolo. That he from this time coloured in oil is doubted in Piedmont; and the Giornale of Pisa published a letter on that subject the last year. I know not that I can add any thing further to what I have already written on this question in many places of this work. Giorgio da Firenze is unknown in his native place, like some others who are commemorated only in this book, who lived much in Piedmont, or at least were better known there than elsewhere. In the same age there worked at S. Francesco di Chieri, quite in the Florentine style, an artist who subscribed himself Johannes pintor pinxit 1343; and some feeble fresco painters in the baptistery of the same city. There are also some other anonymous artists in other parts, whose manners differ in some respects from the style of Giotto; among whom I may mention the painter of the Consolata, a picture of the Virgin held in great veneration at Turin.
At a later period, that is, about the year 1414, Gregorio Bono, a Venetian, was invited also to Chambery by Amadeus VIII., in order to paint his portrait. He executed it on panel; nor is it probable that he ever returned to Venice, as we find no mention made of him there. A Nicolas Robert, a Frenchman, was painter to the duke from 1473 to 1477; but his works have either perished, or remain unknown; and probably he was a miniature painter, or an illuminator of books, as they were at that time designated, artists who from the proximity of their professions are called painters, as well as the nobler masters of the art. About the same time it appears that there worked in Piedmont Raimondo, a Neapolitan, who left his name on a picture of several compartments in S. Francesco di Chieri, a piece estimable from the vivacity of the countenances and the colouring, though the drapery is loaded with gold, a mark of the little refinement of the times. Of another painter of this period there remains an indication in the church of S. Agostino in that city, from this inscription on an ancient picture, Per Martinum Simazotum, alias de Capanigo, 1488. I find noticed also in the hospital of Vigevano a picture with a gold ground by Gio. Quirico da Tortona.
But no territory at this period furnishes us with such interesting matter as Monferrato, then the feudal state of the Paleologhi. We learn from P. della Valle, that Barnaba da Modena was introduced into Alba in the fourteenth century, and he certainly was among the first artists that obtained applause in Piedmont. We have cursorily noticed him in his school; for to judge from the way in which his works are scattered, he must have lived at a distance. Two pictures remain by him at the Conventuals at Pisa; one in the church, the other in the convent; both figures of the Virgin, of whom the second picture represents the coronation, where she is surrounded by S. Francis and other saints of his order. Sig. da Morrona praises the beautiful character of the heads, the drapery, and the colouring; and prefers him to Giotto. And P. della Valle speaks in the same terms of another picture of the Virgin, remaining in the possession of the Conventuals of Alba, which he says is in a grander style than any contemporary works; and he states that the year 1357 is signed to it. As to his assertion that the art in Piedmont had derived from him much light and advancement, I know not how to confirm it, as I have never been in Alba, and as I find a great interval between him and his successors in that very city. Afterwards in the church of S. Domenico a Giorgio Tuncotto painted in 1473; and in that of S. Francesco a M. Gandolfino in 1493. To these may be added Gio. Peroxino and Pietro Grammorseo, well known for two pictures which they left at the Conventuals; the one in Alba in 1517, the other in Casale in 1523.
But the most distinguished artist in those parts, and in Turin itself, was Macrino, a native of Alladio, and a citizen of Alba; whence, in a picture which is in the sacristy of the metropolitan church in Turin, he subscribes himself Macrinus de Alba. His name was Gian Giacomo Fava, an excellent painter, of great truth in his countenances, careful and finished in every part, and sufficiently skilled in his colouring and shadowing. I am aware that the Sig. Piacenza has mentioned him in his notes to Baldinucci, a work which, to the loss of the history of art and just criticism, remains imperfect, and which I have not now at hand. I know not where Macrino studied; but in his picture at Turin, which is much in the style of Bramante and his Milanese contemporaries, he has placed as an ornament in his landscape the Flavian amphitheatre; whence we may conclude that he had seen Rome; or, if not Rome, at least the learned school of Da Vinci. I found by him in the Certosa of Pavia another picture, with S. Ugo and S. Siro; an inferior performance with respect to the forms and the colouring, but very carefully painted in all its parts. But, wherever he studied, he is the first artist in these countries who made advances to the modern style; and he seems to have been held in esteem, not only in Asti and in Alba, which contain many of his large works and cabinet pictures, but in Turin, and in the palace of the prince; to whose family, as I conjecture, belonged a cardinal, represented at the feet of the Virgin, and of the saints surrounding her, in the picture at the cathedral. I am persuaded that he left other pictures in Turin; but that city, above all the other capitals of Italy, has perhaps been the most addicted to substitute modern pictures for the ancient. Contemporary with Macrino was Brea of Nizza, whom I mentioned in the school of Genoa, together with three painters of Alessandria della Paglia, all having lived in that state. I shall here only add Borghese of Nizza della Paglia, where, and in Bassignana, are pictures inscribed Hieronymus Burgensis Niciæ Palearum pinxit.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century, whether it was that the troubled state of Italy called the attention of the princes to more serious objects, or from some other cause, I do not find any interesting records. About the middle of that century it is supposed that Antonio Parentani flourished, who at the Consolata painted within the chapter house a Paradise with numerous angels. I do not know his country, but he followed the Roman taste of that age, and in a certain way diminished it. At this period the books of the public Treasury stand in the place of history, and guide us to the knowledge of other artists. I am indebted for the information to the Baron Vernazza de Fresnois, secretary of state of his majesty, a gentleman not less rich in knowledge than obliging in communicating it. The before-mentioned books record a Valentin Lomellino da Raconigi; and after 1561, in which year he died, or relinquished his place, a Jacopo Argenta of Ferrara. Both the one and the other bore the title of painter to the duke; but the world cannot judge of their talents, as no work by them is known either in Turin or elsewhere; and it is probable they were rather illuminators than painters. A Giacomo Vighi is noticed by Malvasia and by Orlandi, who painted for the court of Turin about 1567, and was presented with the castle of Casal Burgone. The works of this painter too are unknown to the public; but not so the works of those who follow.
Alessandro Ardente of Faenza, though some make him a Pisan, and others a Lucchese,[72] Giorgio Soleri of Alessandria, and Agosto Decio, a Milanese miniaturist before mentioned by me, painted the portrait of Charles Emanuel, duke of Savoy, for which all three are praised by Lomazzo in his treatise, at p. 435. The two first were also appointed painters to the court. They excelled in historical compositions as well as being celebrated portrait painters. By Alessandro we see in Turin at the Monte della Pietà the Fall of St. Paul, in a style that would lead us to believe he had studied in Rome. More of his works remain in Lucca; in one of which, a Baptism of Christ painted at S. Giovanni by this Ardente, the subject is treated in a highly original manner. (Guida di Lucca, p. 261.) In the neighbourhood also of that city are many of his works. The Sig. da Morrona also names him in the second volume of his Pisa illustrata, and informing us that he has not a sufficient account of him, concludes that he lived a long time out of Tuscany. I believe that he resided a considerable time in Piedmont, as I find some works by him out of Turin; as an Epiphany in Moncaliëri, inscribed with his name and the year 1592; and knowing further, that on his death, in 1595, a pension was assigned by the prince to his widow and sons; a proof in my mind that Ardente must have served the court many years.
Of Soleri, the son-in-law of Bernardino Lanini, I have given some account in the Milanese School, ([ tom. iv. p. 278]). He is also mentioned by Malvasia in tom. ii. p. 134, and compared with Passerotti, Arcimboldi, Gaetano, and with Del Monte of Crema, in portrait painting. His professional education however remains obscure, except as far as we are able to conjecture from his works. I have only been able to find two of his performances; and I am not aware that any other are known. The one is in Alessandria, and serves as an altar-piece to the domestic chapel of the Conventuals. It represents the Virgin and the Saints Augustin and Francis recommending to her protection the city of Alessandria, which is represented in the background. The landscape is in the style of Bril, as usual with our painters before the Caracci; the figures are painted with more labour than spirit; the colour is languid; and the whole presents the style of one desirous of imitating the best period of the Roman School, but who had not seen or studied it sufficiently. But there is a more authentic picture in the church of the Domenicans of Casale, with the inscription, Opus Georgii Soleri Alex. 1573. It represents S. Lorenzo kneeling at the feet of the Virgin, who has with her the holy infant; near the saint three angelic boys are playing with a huge gridiron, his customary symbol; and are straining to raise it from the ground. Here we most distinctly trace the follower of Raffaello, in the chasteness of design, the beauty and grace of the countenances, and the finished expression; if indeed the design of these angels is not taken from Coreggio. To render the picture more engaging, there is represented a landscape, with a window, whence there appears in the distance a beautiful country, with fine buildings; nor are there many pictures remaining in the city at this day to be compared with it. If it had possessed a more vigorous colouring, and a stronger chiaroscuro, there would be nothing more to wish for. When I consider the style, I know not to what school to assign it; for it is not that of Lanini, although his father-in-law; nor that of any Milanese, although he was in Milan. Perhaps, like others of his day, he formed himself on the engravings after Raffaello; or if he copied any other painter, it was Bernardino Campi, whom, if we except a certain timidity of touch, he resembles more than any other.