BOOK III. (continued 3)

There is a small, but inestimable picture of St. Francis, that belonged to the late Count Jacopo Zambeccari, at Bologna. The saint is seen in the act of prayer, and by the animated and flushed expression of the eyes, it appears as if his heart had just been dissolved in tears. Two pictures, likewise beautifully composed, I have seen at Genoa; the Death of Adonis bewailed by Venus, in the Durazzo Gallery just before mentioned, and the S. Rocco in the Brignole Sale, offering up prayers for the cessation of the plague. The attitude of the holy man; the eagerness of those who seek him; the tragic exhibition of the dying and the dead around him; a funeral procession going by; an infant seen on the bosom of its dead mother, vainly seeking its wonted nutriment; all shake the soul of the spectator as if he were beholding the real scene. Among his pictures from profane history the most celebrated is his Chase of Diana, in the Borghesi Palace, filled with spirited forms of nymphs, and lively incidents. In the same collection are some of his landscapes, as well as in that of Florence; and some of his portraits in others. Here too he is excellent, but they are the least difficult branches to acquire. Respecting his other works, and the most eminent of his pupils, enough has been stated in the Roman and Neapolitan schools. He educated for his native place Gio. Batista Ruggieri; and to his numerous other misfortunes was added the pain of finding him ungrateful, after having rendered him eminent in his art. This pupil united with Gessi in quality of assistant; and as we shall shew, also took his denomination from him. Passeri dwells on this disappointment of Domenichino incidentally in his life of Algardi, (p. 198).

Next to Zampieri comes his intimate friend Francesco Albani, "who, aiming at the same object," observes Malvasia, "and adopting the same means, pursued the like glorious career." They agree in a general taste for select design, solidity, pathetic power, and likewise in their tints, except in Albani's fleshes being ruddier, and not unfrequently faded, from his method of laying on the grounds. In point of original invention he is superior to Domenichino, and perhaps to any other of the school; and in his representation of female forms, according to Mengs, he has no equal. By some he is denominated the Anacreon of painting. Like that poet, with his short odes, so Albani, from his small paintings, acquired great reputation; and as the one sings Venus and the Loves, and maids and boys, so does the artist hold up to the eye the same delicate and graceful subjects. Nature, indeed formed, the perusal of the poets inclined, and fortune encouraged his genius for this kind of painting; and possessing a consort and twelve children, all of surprising beauty, he was at the same time blest with the finest models for the pursuit of his studies. He had a villa most delightfully situated, which farther presented him with a variety of objects, enabling him to represent the beautiful rural views so familiar to his eye. Passeri greatly extols his talent in this branch, remarking, that where others, being desirous of suiting figures to the landscape, or its various objects to one another, most frequently alter their natural colour, he invariably preserves the green of his trees, the clearness of his waters, and the serenity of the air, under the most lovely aspect; and contrived to unite them with the most enchanting power of harmony.

Upon such grounds, for the most part, he places and disposes his compositions, although he may occasionally introduce specimens of his architecture, in which he is equally expert. His pictures are often met with in collections, or to speak more correctly, they re-appear, inasmuch as both he himself made repetitions, and practised his pupils in them, giving them his own touches. He exhibits few bacchanals, avoiding figures that had already been so admirably treated by Annibal in many of his little pictures, from which, if I mistake not, Albano drew the first ideas of his style; adapting it to his own talent, which was not so elevated as that of Annibal. His most favourite themes are the sleeping Venus, Diana in her bath, Danae on her couch, Galatea in the sea, Europa on the bull, a piece which is also seen on a large scale in the Colonna and Bolognetti collections at Rome, and in that of the Conti Mosca at Pesaro. How beautifully do those figures of the Loves throw their veil over the virgin, in order to protect her from the sun's rays, while others are seen drawing forward the bull with bands of flowers, or goading him in the side with their darts. At times he introduces them in the dance, weaving garlands, and practising with their bows at a heart suspended in the air for a target. Occasionally he conceals some doctrine, or ingenious allegory, under the veil of painting; as in those four oval pictures of the Elements in the Borghesi palace, which he repeated for the royal gallery at Turin. There too are Cupids seen employed in tempering Vulcan's darts; spreading their snares for birds upon the wing; fishing and swimming in the sea; culling and wreathing flowers, as if intended to represent the system of the ancients, who referred every work of nature to Genii, and with Genii accordingly peopled the world. To sacred subjects Albano devoted less attention, but did not vary his taste. The entire action of such pieces was made to depend on the ministry of graceful cherubs, in a manner similar to that which was subsequently adopted by P. Tornielli in his marine canzonettes, where, in every history of the Virgin and Holy Child, he introduces a throng of them as a sacred train. Another very favourite repetition of idea is that of representing the Infant Christ, with his eye turned towards Heaven upon the angels, some in the act of bringing thorns, some the scourge, some the cross, or other symbols of his future passion. There is a picture of this kind in Florence, to which I alluded in the Description of the ducal gallery, and it is also found somewhat varied in two fine pieces; one at the Domenicani in Forli, the other in Bologna, at the Filippini. These, and other works of Albani, interspersed throughout different cities, as in Matelica, in Osimo, in Rimini, besides his fresco paintings in Bologna, at S. Michele in Bosco, at S. Jacopo, of the Spaniards at Rome, with the design of Annibal; these sufficiently exhibit his superior talent for large paintings, although he applied himself with greater zest and vigour to those on a smaller scale.

Albani opened an academy for several years at Rome, and at Bologna, invariably a competitor of Guido, both in his magisterial and his professional capacity.[32] Hence arose those strictures upon his style which Guido's disciples affected to despise as loose and effeminate, wanting elegance in the virile forms, while those of the boys were all of the same proportion, and his heads of the Holy Family, and of saints had always one idea. Similar accusations, advanced likewise against Pietro Perugino, are not calculated to depress so great an artist's merit, so much as the esteem of Annibal, his own writings, and his pupils, serve to raise him in our regard. It is matter of historical fact that Annibal, seized with admiration of some of his small pictures, and among others a bacchante, seen at a fountain pouring out wine, purchased it, and declared that he had not even paid for the drops of water so exquisitely coloured by the wine. Of his writings there remain only a few fragments, preserved by Malvasia, not indeed reduced to method, a task that ought to devolve on some other pen, but highly valuable from the information and maxims which they contain. Among his pupils Sacchi and Cignani are in themselves sufficient to reflect credit upon their master, the first of whom sustained the art at Rome, the other at Bologna, and to whose efforts it was owing that its reputation so long continued in both those schools. There, moreover, we recounted the names of Speranza, and Mola, of Lugano, his noble disciples; and to these, besides Cignani, to whom we refer elsewhere, we can add a considerable number. Gio. Batista Mola, a Frenchman, long continued with Albano, and, according to Boschini, resided with the other Mola at Venice, where they copied a vast work of Paul Veronese for Cardinal Bichi. He displayed surprising skill in drawing rural scenes and trees, and being preferred by many in this branch to his master, he often added landscape to his master's figures, and occasionally adapted figures to his own landscape, very beautiful, in Albani's style, but without his softness. In the excellent collection of the Marchesi Rinuccini, at Florence, is a picture of the Repose in Egypt, by the same hand. Two other foreign pupils also did him credit; Antonio Catalani, called Il Romano, and Girolamo Bonini, also from his native place, entitled l'Anconitano, who, in imitating Albani, was equalled by few, and who enjoyed his perfect confidence and friendship. Settling at Bologna, they there employed themselves with reputation in some elegant works, and left several histories in fresco in the public palace. In this last branch, Pierantonio Torri also distinguished himself, called, in Guarienti's lexicon, Antonio, dropping Pietro on the authority of the Passagiere disingannato; and Torrigli, in the Guide of Venice, where he painted the architectural parts in the church of S. Giuseppe for the figures of Ricchi. Filippo Menzani is known only as the attached disciple and faithful copyist of his master. Gio. Batista Galli, and Bartolommeo Morelli, the former called from his birth-place, Bibiena, the latter Pianoro, were similarly employed in taking copies from him; though the second applied to it with extreme reluctance, on account of Albani being "too highly finished, diligent, and laborious, for the task of copying." Both these artists are commended by the continuator of Malvasia. Bibiena, though he died early, conducted works that might be ascribed to Albani, in particular the Ascension at the Certosa, and his St. Andrew at the Servi in Bologna. Pianoro succeeded admirably well in his frescos, more especially in the chapel of Casa Pepoli at S. Bartolommeo di Porta, decorated by him throughout in such exquisite taste, that, were history silent, it would be said to have been designed and coloured by Albani's own hand.

By some, Guido Reni is esteemed the great genius of the school; nor did any other single artist excite so much jealousy in the Caracci. Lodovico was unable to disguise it; and from a pupil he made him his rival, and in order to humble him, bestowed his favour on Guercino, an artist in quite another taste. Annibal too, after some years, on seeing him at Rome, blamed Albani for inviting him thither; and, in order to depress him, he put Domenichino in opposition to him. Even from the age of twenty, when he left the school of Calvart, the Caracci discovered in him a rare genius for the art, so elevated and ambitious of distinction, that he aspired to something great and novel from the outset of his career. Some of his early efforts are to be seen in the Bonfigliuoli palace, and in other choice collections, displaying a variety of manner. He devoted much study to Albert Durer, he imitated the Caracci, studied the forms of Cesi, and, like Passerotti, aimed at giving strong relief and accuracy to the drawing of the muscles. In some instances he followed Caravaggio, and in the aforesaid palace is a figure of a sibyl, very beautiful in point of features, but greatly overlaid with depth of shade. The style he adopted arose particularly from an observation on that of Caravaggio one day incidentally made by Annibal Caracci, that to this manner there might be opposed one wholly contrary; in place of a confined and declining light, to exhibit one more full and vivid; to substitute the tender for the bold, to oppose clear outlines to his indistinct ones, and to introduce for his low and common figures those of a more select and beautiful kind.

These words made a much deeper impression on the mind of Guido than Annibal was aware of; nor was it long before he wholly applied himself to the style thus indicated to him. Sweetness was his great object; he sought it equally in design, in the touch of his pencil, and in colouring; from that time he began to make use of white lead, a colour avoided by Lodovico, and at the same time predicted the durability of his tints, such as they have proved. His fellow pupils were indignant at his presuming to depart from the Caracci's method, and returning to the feeble undecided manner of the past century. Nor did he pretend to be indifferent to their remarks and advice. He still preserved that strength of style, so much aimed at by his school, while he softened it with more than its usual delicacy; and by degrees proceeding in the same direction, he, in a few years, attained to the degree of delicacy he had proposed. For this reason I have observed that in Bologna, more than elsewhere, his first is distinguished from his second manner, and it is made a question which of the two is preferable. Nor do all agree with Malvasia, who pronounced his former the most pleasing, his latter manner the most studied.

In these variations, however, he never lost sight of that exquisite ease which so much attracts us in his works. He was more particularly attentive to the correct form of beauty, especially in his youthful heads. Here, in the opinion of Mengs, he surpassed all others, and, according to Passeri's expression, he drew faces of Paradise. In these Rome abounds more richly than Bologna itself. The Fortune in the capitol; the Aurora, belonging to the Rospigliosi; the Helen to the Spada; the Herodias to the Corsini; the Magdalen to the Barberini, with other subjects in possession of several princes, are regarded as the wonders of Guido's art. This power of beauty was, in the words of Albano, his most bitter and constant rival, the gift of nature; though the whole was the result of his own intense study of natural beauty, and of Raffaello, and of the ancient statues, medals, and cameos. He declared that the Medicean Venus and the Niobe were his most favourite models; and it is seldom we do not recognize in his paintings either Niobe herself, or one of her children, though diversified in a variety of manner with such exquisite skill, as in no way to appear borrowed. In the same way did Guido derive advantage from Raffaello, Coreggio, Parmigianino, and from his beloved Paul Veronese; from all of whom he selected innumerable beauties, but with such happy freedom of hand as to excite the envy of the Caracci. And, in truth, this artist aimed less at copying beautiful countenances, than at forming for himself a certain general and abstract idea of beauty, as we know was done by the Greeks, and this he modulated and animated in his own style. I find mention, that being interrogated by one of his pupils, in what part of heaven, in what mould existed those wondrous features which he only drew, he pointed to the casts of the antique heads just alluded to, adding, "You too may gather from such examples beauties similar to those in my pictures, if your skill be equal to the task." I find, moreover, that he took for model of one of his Magdalens, the extremely vulgar head of a colour-grinder; but under Guido's hand every defect disappeared, each part became graceful, the whole a miracle. Thus too in his naked figures he reduced them, whatever they were, to a perfect form, more especially in the hands and feet, in which he is singular, and the same in his draperies, which he often drew from the prints of Albert Durer, enriching them, freed from their dryness, with those flowing folds or that grandeur of disposition best adapted to the subject. To portraits themselves, while he preserved the forms and age of the originals, he gave a certain air of novelty and grace, such as we see in that of Sixtus V., placed in the Galli palace at Osimo, or in that wonderful one of Cardinal Spada, in possession of some of his descendants at Rome. There is no one action, position, or expression at all injurious to his figures; the passions of grief, terror, sorrow, are all combined with the expression of beauty; he turns them every way as he lists, he changes them into every attitude, always equally pleasing, and every one equally entitled to the eulogy of displaying in every action, and in every step, the beauty which secretly animates and accompanies it.[33]

What most surprises us is the variety which he infuses into this beauty, resulting no less from his richness of imagination than from his studies. Still continuing to design in the academy up to the close of his career, he practised his invention how best to vary his idea of the beautiful, so as to free it from all monotony and satiety. He was fond of depicting his countenances with upraised looks, and used to say that he had a hundred different modes of thus representing them. He displayed equal variety in his draperies, though invariably preferring to draw the folds ample, easy, natural, and with clear meaning, as to their origin, progress, and disposition. Nor did he throw less diversity into the ornaments of his youthful heads, disposing the tresses, whether loose, bound, or left in artful confusion, always different, and sometimes casting over them a veil, fillet, or turban, so as to produce some fresh display of grace. Nor were his heads of old men inferior in this respect, displaying even the inequality of the skin, the flow of the beard, with the hair turned as we see on every side, and animating the features with a few bold, decided touches, and few lights, so as to give great effect at a distance, altogether with a surprising degree of nature; specimens of which are seen at the Pitti palace, the Barberina and Albana galleries; and yet among the least rare of this artist's productions. He bestowed similar attention to varying his fleshes; in delicate subjects he made them of the purest white, adding, moreover, certain livid and azure, mixed among middle tints, open to a charge, at least by some, of mannerism.[34]

The preceding commendations, however, will not extend to the whole of Guido's works. His inequality is well known, but not owing to any maxim of his art. It arose from his love of play, a failing which obscured his many moral qualities. His profits were great; but he was kept continually in a state of indigence by his losses, which he endeavoured to repair by the too negligent practice of his art. Hence we trace occasional errors in perspective, and deficiency of invention, a defect so much insisted upon by the implacable Albani. Hence too his incorrectness of design, the disproportion of his figures, and his works put to sale before their completion. Yet these are not excluded from royal cabinets, and that of Turin possesses one of Marsyas, a finely finished figure, before which is seen standing little more than the sketch of an Apollo. To form then a fair estimate of Guido, we must turn to other efforts which raised him to high reputation. Among his most excellent pieces I am of opinion that his Crucifixion of St. Peter, at Rome, is a specimen of his boldest manner; the Miracle of the Manna at Ravenna, the Conception at Forli, the Slaughter of the Innocents at Bologna; and there too his celebrated picture of Saints Peter and Paul in the Casa Sampieri. Specimens of his more tender manner may be found in the St. Michael at Rome, the Purification at Modena, the Job at Bologna, St. Thomas the Apostle at Pesaro, the Assumption at Genoa, one of Guido's most studied pieces, and placed directly opposite the St. Ignatius of Rubens.

Guido taught at Rome, and gave his pupils, as we have stated, to that city. He educated still more for his native place, where he opened a school, frequented by more than two hundred pupils, as we are informed by Crespi. Nor are we by this number to measure the dignity of his character as a master. He was an accomplished head of his school, who, in every place, introduced into the art a more sweet and engaging manner, entitled in the times of Malvasia the modern manner. Even his rivals took advantage of it, the fact being indisputable that Domenichino, Albano, and Lanfranco, along with their best disciples, derived that degree of delicacy, in which they sometimes surpass the Caracci, from none but Guido. He would not permit the scholars in his studio to copy in the first instance from his own works, but exercised them in those of Lodovico, and the most eminent deceased masters. It is conjectured also by Crespi, that he grounded his scholars in the principles of the art of imitation, and all the first requisites, without reference to the minutiæ, which are easily acquired in the course of practice. Guido particularly prided himself on Giacomo Semenza, and Francesco Gessi, whom he thought equal to any masters at that time in Bologna. He employed them in that chapel of the cathedral at Ravenna, a perfect miracle of beauty, and gave them commissions from the court of Mantua and Savoy, assisting them also, both at Rome and his native place; in return for all which he was repaid by Semenza with gratitude, but by Gessi with bitter persecutions. He was followed by both in point of style, and specimens are to be seen in some choice collections.

Semenza emulated Guido in both his manners, and displayed more correctness, erudition, and strength. His pictures at Araceli and other places sufficiently distinguish him from the immense crowd of fresco-painters at Rome. There too are many of his altar-pieces, none more beautiful, perhaps, than the S. Sebastian, at S. Michele in Bologna. Gessi surpassed him in spirit, invention, and rapidity, for which last quality even Guido envied him. This enabled him too, from the first, to vary his works in point of manner until he hit upon the right one, as in his very beautiful St. Francis at the Nunziata, little inferior to Guido, as well as in several others conducted in his earlier and best days. To these he was indebted for his name of a second Guido; but subsequently he abused his talents, as is the case with those who are held in slight esteem for performing much and rapidly. Thus Bologna abounds with his pictures, in which, with the exception of their fine character and much delicacy, there is nothing to commend; his pictures are cold, his colouring is slight; the shape and features are often too large, and not seldom incorrect. He is known to have invariably affected the second manner of Guido, and hence he is always more feeble, dry, and less harmonious than his master. By these distinctions are the differences between salesmen and purchasers usually decided, as to whether such a piece be a poor Guido or a Gessi.

Yet Gessi had a numerous school at Bologna, on Guido's retiring, and formed scholars of some reputation, such as Giacomo Castellini, Francesco Coreggio, and Giulio Trogli, who, devoting himself to perspective, under Mitelli, and publishing a work entitled Paradossi della Prospettiva, went ever afterwards by the name of the Paradox. Ercole Ruggieri was a faithful follower of Gessi's style, insomuch as at first sight to be mistaken for his master. He was called Ercolino del Gessi, and his brother Batistino del Gessi, an artist of rare talent, commended by Baglione, and much esteemed by Cortona, in whose arms he breathed his last. Batistino was first a pupil of Domenichino, as before mentioned; and might more properly be named dello Zampieri than del Gessi, from his education and his style. He accompanied Gessi to Naples, and subsequently became his rival, and surpassed him at S. Barbaziano in Bologna. Finally he fixed his residence at Rome, where remain some of his paintings in fresco, in the cloister of the Minerva, in the Cenci palace, and elsewhere, which shew in him the promise of a very distinguished artist; but he did not survive his thirty-second year.

To Guido Reni belongs Ercole de Maria, or da S. Giovanni, called Ercolino di Guido. So pliant was his genius to that of his master, that when the latter had half completed a picture, his pupil made a copy and substituted it for the original, and Guido continued the work, unsuspicious of the cheat, as if it had been his own. He willingly employed him, therefore, in multiplying his own designs, two of which copies are yet seen in public, extremely beautiful, though not displaying the same freedom as others which he conducted on private commission, at a more advanced age. In these there appears a decision and flow of pencil which imposed upon the best judges, a talent that procured him admiration at Rome, with an honour received by no other copyist, being created a Cavalier by Urban VIII.; but this artist also died in the flower of his age.

Another good copyist and master of Guido's style appeared in Gio. Andrea Sirani. On his master's death he completed the great picture of St. Bruno, left unfinished at the Certosini, with others throughout the city in the same state. Whether owing to Guido's retouches, or want of freedom, Sirani's earliest works bear much resemblance to that master's second manner, more particularly his Crucifixion in the church of S. Marino, which seems like a repetition of the S. Lorenzo in Lucina, or that in the Modenese gallery, in whose features death itself appears beautiful. In progress of time Sirani is supposed to have aimed at the stronger style of Guido in his early career, and conducted in such taste are his pictures of the Supper of the Pharisee, at the Certosa, the Nuptials of the Virgin, at St. Giorgio, in Bologna, and the Twelve Crucifixions, in the cathedral of Piacenza, an extremely beautiful painting, ascribed by some to Elisabetta Sirani, a daughter and pupil of Gio. Andrea.

This lady adhered faithfully to Guido's second manner, to which she added powerful relief and effect. She is nearly the sole individual of the family, whose name occurs in collections out of Bologna. Anna and Barbara, her two sisters, also artists, as well as their father himself, yield precedence to her single name. How surprising that a young woman, who survived not her twenty-sixth year, should have produced the number of paintings enumerated by Malvasia, still more that she should execute them with so much care and elegance; but most of all, that she could conduct them on a grand scale and in histories, with none of that timidity so apparent in Fontana, and in other artists of her sex. Such is her picture of Christ at the River Jordan, painted for the Certosa; her St. Antony, at S. Leonardo, and many other altar-pieces in different cities. In the subjects which she most frequently painted by commission, she still improved on herself, as we perceive in her Magdalens and figures of the Virgin and infant Christ, of which some of the most finished specimens are in the Zampieri, Zambeccari, and Caprara palaces, as well as in the Corsini and Bolognetti collections at Rome. There are also some small paintings of histories on copper, extremely valuable, from her hand, as that of Lot, in possession of Count Malvezzi, or the St. Bastian, attended by S. Irene, in the Altieri palace; the former at Bologna, the latter at Rome. I have also discovered some portraits, no unfrequent commissions which she received from a number of sovereigns and innumerable distinguished personages throughout Europe. Of this class I saw a singularly beautiful specimen at Milan, being her own likeness crowned by a young cherub. It is in the possession of Counsellor Pagave. Elisabetta died by poison, administered by one of her own maids, and was bewailed in her native place with marks of public sorrow. She was interred in the same vault which contained the ashes of Guido Reni. Besides her two sisters, who imitated her in the art, were many other ladies; Veronica Franchi, Vincenzia Fabri, Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Ginevra Cantofoli; of which last, as well as of Barbara Sirani, there remain some fine pictures, even in some churches of Bologna.[35]

Among the Bolognese pupils of Guido, Domenico Maria Canuti obtained great celebrity. He was employed by the Padri Olivetani, (an order the most distinguished for its patronage of first rate artists,) in several monasteries, more particularly at Rome, Padua, and Bologna, whose library and church he decorated with numerous paintings. One of these, the Taking down from the Cross by torch-light, is greatly admired, several copies of which are met with, in general called the Night of Canuti; also a St. Michael, painted in part within the arch, and in part on the exterior, is considered a rare triumph of the power of perspective. His entire work in that library was afterwards described and printed by the Manolessi. He left immense works also in two halls of the Pepoli palace, in the Colonna gallery at Rome, in the ducal palace at Mantua, and elsewhere, being esteemed one of the best fresco painters of his time. His fertility and vivacity please more than his colouring, while his individual figures are, perhaps, more attractive than the general effect of the picture. He was excellent too in oil, and succeeded admirably in copying Guido, whose Magdalen of the Barberini was taken so exactly, that it appears the best among all the copies seen at S. Michele in Bosco. Canuti opened school at Bologna; but his pupils, during his tour to Rome, attached themselves chiefly to Pasinelli, in whose school, or in that of Cignani, they will be found included during the last epoch.

Other of Guido's scholars are indicated by Malvasia, among whom he highly extols Michele Sobleo, or Desubleo, from Flanders, though resident at Bologna. But he left little in public there, and that is a mixture of Guercino and of Guido. Several churches at Venice were decorated by his hand, and the altar-piece at the Carmelite friars, representing also various saints of that order, is among his most celebrated works. From the same country was Enrico Fiammingo, whom we must not confound with Arrigo Fiammingo, an artist made known to us by Baglione. Both fixed their abode in Italy, and the follower of Guido, formerly pupil to Ribera, painted some pictures at S. Barbaziano in Bologna, that may compete with those of Gessi, were it not for the fleshes being of a darker tinge. A few pictures by another foreigner are preserved at the Capuccini and elsewhere; his name, Pietro Lauri, or rather De Laurier, a Frenchman, whose crayons were frequently retouched by Guido, and whose oil pictures also shew traces of the same hand. Respecting another, whose name only remains, it will be sufficient to mention an altar-piece of the Magdalen, placed in the oratory of S. Carlo, at Volterra, relating to which is a letter of Guido to the Cav. Francesco Incontri, stating that he had retouched it, particularly in the head; but that, with the aid of Guido's design, it was painted by the Signor Camillo. He is said to have been a member of that noble family, of whom memorials have been preserved by his house.

Returning to the Bolognese artists, Gio. Maria Tamburini will be found to hold a high rank, the author of many fresco histories in the portico of the Conventuals, and of the Nunziata at the Vita, a very graceful painting drawn from his master's sketch. Yet he was surpassed by Gio. Batista Bolognini, by whose hand there is a S. Ubaldo at S. Gio. in Monte, altogether in the style of Guido. This artist had a nephew and pupil in Giacomo Bolognini, who painted large pictures and capricci, and is mentioned by Zanotti and Crespi. Bartolommeo Marescotti is hardly deserving notice; at S. Martino he appears only as a hasty imitator, or rather a corrupter of the Guido manner. Mentioned, too, by various writers, is a Sebastiano Brunetti, a Giuliano Dinarelli, a Lorenzo Loli, and in particular a Pietro Gallinari, on whom his master's predilection conferred also the name of Pietro del Sig. Guido. His earliest pieces, retouched by Reni, are held in high esteem, and others which he produced for the court, and in various churches at Guastalla, are valuable. He was an artist of the noblest promise, but cut off prematurely, not without suspicion of poison.

Many foreigners who acquired the art from Guido, particularly at Bologna, were dispersed throughout various schools, according to the places where they resided; such were Boulanger, Cervi, Danedi, Ferrari, Ricchi, and several more. Two artists who chiefly dwelt in Bologna and Romagna in high esteem, I have reserved for this place, named Cagnacci and Cantarini. Guido Cagnacci, referred by Orlandi to Castel Durante, though the Arcangelesi more properly claim him for their fellow-citizen, was a rare exception to Italian artists, in having sought his fortunes in Germany, where he was highly deserving of the success he met with at the court of Leopold I. What he has left in Italy, such as his St. Matthew and St. Teresa, in two churches of Rimini, or the Beheading of St. John, in the Ercolani palace at Bologna, shew him to have been a diligent and correct, as well as a refined artist, in his master's latest style. Malvasia was of opinion that he carried the colour of his fleshes, now rather faded, somewhat too high; to others it appeared that he drew the extremities too small in proportion to his figures; while some have remarked a capricious degree of freedom, shewn in sometimes representing his angels at a more advanced age than was customary. All, however, must acknowledge Guidesque beauties apparent in every picture, added to a certain original air of nobility in his heads, and fine effect of his chiaroscuro. His pictures for the most part were painted for the ornament of cabinets, such as are seen in the ducal gallery at Modena, and in private houses. There is his Lucretia in the Casa Isolani, and his magnificent David, which is esteemed one of the noblest pieces, in possession of the princes Colonna; two pictures abundantly repeated both in the Bolognese and Roman Schools, and of which, indeed, I have seen more copies than even of the celebrated David by Guido Reni.

Simone Cantarini da Pesaro became an exact designer under Pandolfi, greatly improved in the school of Claudio Ridolfi, and by incessant study of the Caracci engravings. For colouring he studied the most eminent Venetian artists, and, more than all, the works of Barocci. In one of his Holy Families he shews great resemblance to this last artist, a picture preserved in Casa Olivieri, along with several others, and some portraits, of different taste, but by the same hand. This was caused by the arrival of the grand pictures by Guido, of St. Thomas at Pesaro, and the Nunziata, and the St. Peter, in the adjacent city of Fano, after which he so wholly devoted himself to the new style, as to induce him to emulate, and, if possible, to attempt to surpass that artist. In the same chapel where Guido placed his picture of St. Peter receiving the Keys, Simone displayed his miracle of the Saint at the Porta Speciosa, where he so nearly resembled, as to appear Guido himself; and even in Malvasia's time, foreigners were unable to detect any difference of hand. It is certain he possessed much of that artist's more powerful manner, which is shewn in his principal picture; the heads very beautiful and varied, the composition natural; fine play of light and shade, except that the chief figure of his history is too much involved in the latter. The better to approach his prototype, Simone proceeded to Bologna, and became Guido's disciple, affecting at first much humility and deference, while he artfully concealed the extent of his own skill. Then gradually developing it, he soon rose in high esteem, no less with his master than the whole city, aided as he was by his singular talent for engraving. Shortly he grew so vain of his own ability, as to presume to censure not only artists of mediocrity, but Domenichino, Albano, and even Guido. To the copies made by the pupils from their master's pieces, he gave bold retouches, and occasionally corrected some inaccuracy in their model, until at length he began to criticise Guido openly, and to provoke his resentment. Owing to such arrogance, and to negligence in executing his commissions, he fell in public esteem, left Bologna for some time, and remained like a refugee at Rome. Here he studied from Raffaello, and from the antique, then returned and taught at Bologna, whence he passed into the Duke of Mantua's service. Still to whatever country he transferred his talents, he was accompanied by the same malignant disposition; a great boaster, and a despiser of all other artists, not even sparing Giulio and Raffaello, insomuch that the works could not be so greatly esteemed as the man was detested. Incurring also the duke's displeasure, and not succeeding in his portrait, his pride was so far mortified as to throw him ill, and passing to Verona, he there died, aged 36, in 1648, not without suspicion of having been poisoned, no very rare occurrence with defamers like him.

Baldinucci, supported by most of the dilettanti, extols him as another Guido; and assuredly he approaches nearer to him than to any other, and with a decision which belonged to few imitators. His ideas are not so noble, but in the opinion of many they were even more graceful. He is less learned, but more accurate; and may be pronounced the only artist who in the hands and feet very assiduously studied the manner of Lodovico. He was extremely diligent in modelling for his own use, and one of his heads in particular is commended, from which he drew those of his old men, which are extremely beautiful. From the models, too, he derived his folds, though he never attained to the same majestic and broad sweep as Guido and Tiarini, a truth which he as candidly admitted. In point of colouring he is varied and natural. His greatest study was bestowed upon his fleshes, in which, though friendly to the use of white lead, he was content with moderate white, avoiding what he called the cosmetics of Domenichino and the shades of the Caracci. In his outlines and shadows, dismissing the use of the lacca and terra d'ombra,[36] he introduced ultramarine and terra verde, so much commended by Guido. He animated his fleshes with certain lights from place to place, never contrasting them with vivid colours, except in as far as he frequently studied to give them from depth of shadow, that relief which serves to redouble their beauty. If there was nothing decidedly bold in his painting, yet he covered the whole with an ashy tone, such as Guido applied in his St. Thomas, and which became so perfectly familiar to Cantarini as to acquire for him from Albani the surname of pittor cenerino. Spite of this opinion, however, he is considered by Malvasia as the most graceful colourist, and he adds, the most correct designer of his age. His most beautiful pictures that I have seen, in which his heads of saints are always conspicuous for beauty and expression, are the St. Antony, at the Franciscans di Cagli; the St. James, in the church of that name in Rimini; the Magdalen, at the Filippini of Pesaro; and, in the same city, his St. Dominick, at the Predicatori; in whose convent are also two Evangelists, half-size figures, animated to the life. There is also a S. Romualdo, in possession of the noble Paolucci, a figure that seems to start from the canvass, and at the Casa Mosca, besides various other works, is a portrait of a young nun that rivets every beholder. Many of his Holy Families also are to be seen in Bologna, in Pesaro, and at Rome; nor are his heads of St. John very rare, any more than his half-figures, or heads of apostles, a specimen of which is to be seen in the Pitti palace.

Simon Cantarini educated a few of his fellow-citizens to the art. One of these was Gio. Maria Luffoli, many of whose paintings, which display the school, are to be met with in his native place, particularly at S. Giuseppe and at S. Antonio Abate. Gio. Venanzi (or Francesco) had been already instructed by Guido, when he entered the school of Cantarini, though he resembles neither of these masters so nearly as he does the Gennari. When we inspect the two beautiful histories of St. Antony, in the church of that name, we might pronounce him their disciple. An ancient MS. of Pesaro, edited along with the pictures of the city,[37] places him at the court of Parma, most probably for the purpose of decorating the palace, there being nothing from his hand in the churches. In the same MS. mention is made of Domenico Peruzzini, as born at Pesaro, and the pupil of Pandolfi. In Orlando's Lexicon and other books there is frequent mention made of one Cav. Giovanni, and he is given out as belonging to Ancona, and a disciple of Simone. The Pesarese Guide, in which the very diligent Can. Lazzarini indisputably took part, informs us that these artists were brothers, both born at Pesaro, and that they transferred their services to Ancona, their adopted country, (p. 65). From the dilettanti of Ancona I could gather tidings of only one Peruzzini; and I doubt whether his being named Domenico by the author of the MS. may not have arisen from mistake, as he proceeds to relate matters chiefly appertaining to Giovanni. However this be, there is a picture of S. Teresa by Peruzzini at the Carmelite Friars in Ancona, bearing some traces of Baroccio's manner. That of the Beheading of St. John, at the hospital, is extremely beautiful; and here he appears rather a disciple of the Bolognese. He seems to have displayed a similar character elsewhere; it being known that this artist, after forming a style participating of those of the Caracci, of Guido, and of Pesarese, took to a wandering life, and painted in various theatres and churches, if not with much study, with tolerable correctness, a knowledge of perspective, in which he was excellent, and with a certain facility, grace, and spirit, which delight the eye. His paintings are dispersed through various places in the Picenum, even as far as Ascoli on the confines, where are a number of works by his hand. There are some at Rome and at Bologna, where he painted in the cloister of the Servi a lunette,[38] very fairly executed within twenty-four hours; at Turin, where he was made a cavalier; and in Milan, where he died. At Rome are some specimens too from the hand of his son and pupil, Paolo, entitled in the aforesaid MS. a good and decided painter.

An undoubted scholar of Simone was Flamminio Torre, called dagli Ancinelli, who came from the studio of Cavedone and Guido. His chief talent consisted in an easy perfect imitation of every style, which brought him as high a price for his copies as was given for the originals of eminent artists, sometimes even more. Though not learned in the theory of the art, by his practical ability he acquired the manner of Cantarini, dismissing, however, his ashy colour, and often turning to the imitation of Guido. He was court-painter at Modena; and at Bologna in particular are preserved both scriptural and profane histories, displaying very pleasing figures as large as Poussin, or on the same scale. Some I saw in possession of Monsig. Bonfigliuoli, others in the collection of the librarian Magnani; and some still more firm, and in the best style of colouring, in the Ratta palace. Yet we rarely meet with them uninjured by the use of rock oil, which he carried to excess; and his church paintings, such as a Depositing from the Cross at S. Giorgio, as they have been least attended to, have suffered the most. On the death of Simone, as his first pupil, he succeeded to his magisterial office, and promoted the progress of the scholars whom he left. Girolamo Rossi succeeded better in engraving than in painting. Lorenzo Pasinelli became an excellent master, but of a different style, as we shall see in another epoch. The most eminent among Torre's disciples was Giulio Cesare Milani, rather admired in the churches of Bologna, and extolled in many adjacent states. But it is now time to turn our attention from Guido and his disciples to Guercino, which will afford the same pleasure, I trust, to my readers, as the dilettanti enjoy, in beholding two styles, so strikingly opposed, immediately contrasted. In a similar manner, to adduce an instance taken from the Spada Gallery, it yields delight to turn our eye from Guido's Rape of Helen to the funeral pyre of Dido, painted by Guercino, and placed directly opposite.

Gio. Francesco Barbieri, surnamed Guercino da Cento, would, to speak with precision, be better ranked among the artists of Ferrara, to which city Cento is subject; but we must observe the almost universal custom of including him among the Caracci's disciples. This has arisen either from a tradition that his genius at an early age received some bias towards design from the Caracci, which but ill accords with the epoch of his age, or from the circumstance of his having taken one of Lodovico's pictures for a model, which is slight ground enough for attaching him to the school. Moreover, he never frequented the Caracci's academy; but, after staying a short time with Cremonini, his fellow-countryman, at Bologna, he returned to Cento, and there resided with Benedetto Gennari the elder, first as his pupil, next his colleague, and lastly his kinsman. Some too would contend that one among the masters of Gio. Francesco was Gio. Batista Gennari, who in 1606 painted for S. Biagio, in Bologna, a Madonna among various saints, in a style resembling Procaccini. And indeed the Paradise, at S. Spirito in Cento, and an altar-piece at the Capuccini, with other early works by Guercino, partake of the old style. Subsequently he studied, along with Benedetto, to find by experiment what constituted grand effect in the art, in which taste I cannot distinguish, with the generality of dilettanti and writers, two manners only; he having openly professed three, as we learn from Sig. Righetti, in his Description of the paintings of Cento.

Of these the first is the least known, consisting of abundance of strong shades, with sufficiently animated lights, less studied in the features and in the extremities, with fleshes inclining to the yellow; in the rest less attractive in point of colouring; a manner distantly resembling that of Caravaggio, in which kind are to be found several specimens both at Cento and in S. Guglielmo a' ministri degl'Infermi at Bologna. From this he passed to his second manner, which is by far the most pleasing and valuable. He continued to improve it during several years, with the aid of other schools; in this interval often visiting Bologna, residing for some time at Venice, and remaining many years at Rome along with the most eminent followers of Caracci, and entering into terms of friendship with Caravaggio. His taste is mainly founded on the style of this last master; displaying strong contrast of light and shadow; both exceedingly bold, yet mingled with much sweetness and harmony, and with powerful art of relief, a branch so greatly admired by professors.[39] Hence some foreigners have bestowed on him the title of the magician of Italian painting; for in him were renewed those celebrated illusions of antiquity, such as that of the boy who stretched forth his hand to snatch the painted fruit. From Caravaggio too he borrowed the custom of obscuring his outlines, and availed himself of it for despatch. He also imitated his half-sized figures upon one ground, and for the most part composed his historical pictures in this method. Yet he studied to become more correct in point of design, and more select than Caravaggio; not that he ever attained peculiar elegance or peculiar dignity of features, though most frequently he drew his heads, like a sound observer of nature, with graceful turns, easy natural attitudes, and a colouring, which if not the most delicate, is at least the most sound and most juicy. Often in comparing the figures of Guido with Guercino's, one would say that the former had been fed with roses, as observed by one of the ancients, and the latter with flesh. How far he excelled as a colourist in his draperies, formed in the taste of the best Venetians, in his landscape, and in his accessories, will sufficiently appear on beholding his S. Petronilla in the Quirinal, or his picture of Christ risen from the Dead, at Cento,[40] or his St. Helen, at the Mendicants in Venice; excellent specimens of his second manner. To the same belong in general all that he left at Rome, even his greater works, such as the S. Gio. Grisogono in the soffitto of that church, or the Aurora, adorning the villa Lodovisi. Yet he surpassed even these, to the surprise of all, in the cupola of the Piacenza cathedral; and in the same city he appears to have competed with Pordenone, and in point of vigour of style to have gone beyond him.

Some years having elapsed, after his return from Rome to Cento, he began to emulate Guido, perceiving that his sweetness of manner obtained such distinguished applause. By degrees he softened down that power of hand just noticed, and painted more open and vividly. He added somewhat more attraction and variety to his heads, and a certain study of expression, almost indescribable, which is surprising in some of his pictures of this period. Some have assigned such a change of manner to the time of Guido's decease, when Guercino, perceiving that he could take the lead at Bologna, left Cento, in order to fix his residence in that great city. But several pictures which he had conducted in his third manner, previous to Reni's death, fully confute such an opinion. On the contrary, it was rumoured that Guido remarked this change, which he construed into commendation of himself, declaring that he had avoided Guercino's style as much as possible, whilst the latter approached as nearly as he could to Guido's. In this taste, though partaking of the preceding, is the Circumcision of Jesus, placed in the church of Gesù e Maria, in which the study of architecture and drapery vies with that of the figures; and it is difficult to decide whether these most please by their form, or by their expression. We might add the Nuptials of the Virgin, at S. Paterniano in Fano, the S. Palazia in Ancona, the Nunziata at Forli, the Prodigal Son in the royal palace at Turin, a history piece of entire figures, which is met with in half figures in many galleries. However attractive this last manner may be found, skilled judges would have wished Guercino not to have swerved from the vigour of the second, to which his genius was moulded, and in which he shone unrivalled and unique.

The frequency of his commissions contributed, perhaps, to put him upon a more easy method, no less than his own incredible genius for execution and despatch. He produced a hundred and six altar-pieces, and a hundred and forty-four large pictures for princes and other persons of distinction, without including numbers of others painted for private persons, Madonnas, portraits, half-length figures, and landscapes, in which the rapidity of execution is highly original. Hence he is by no means rare in collections. The noble Zolli family at Rimino possesses about twenty of his pieces, Count Lecchi at Brescia also a great number; all perfect and polished according to his manner. Among these is a portrait of a friar of the Osservanti, his father confessor, quite a miracle of art.

Guercino's school greatly flourished at Cento, in Bologna not so much, owing to his own choice of having his two nephews the Gennari, and a few other intimate friends with him, which led him to exclude strangers in some degree from his studio. Few Bolognese artists, therefore, belong to this master; such as Giulio Coralli, whom Orlandi, a contemporary writer, gives as pupil to Guercino at Bologna, and of Cairo at Milan, and who, Crespi adds, was much employed at Parma, at Piacenza, and at Mantua. He was a better portrait-painter, if I mistake not, than a composer. Fulgenzio Mondini was an artist of more merit; he painted two fresco histories in the church of S. Petronio at Bologna, relating to the Paduan saint. He died young at Florence, where, after having painted some time for the court, he was employed by the Marchesi Capponi to decorate their villa of Colonnata, and his memory has been honoured with a long eulogy by Malvasia. The latter declares that he knew none gifted with qualities that promised so much in that age, and conjectures that had he survived he would have become the first fresco painter of his age.

The two young Gennari were sons of Gio. Francesco's sister, and of Ercole, son of Benedetto Gennari. Respecting Ercole, it is stated that no more exact copyist of the works of Guercino was to be met with. His sons, Benedetto and Cesare, likewise distinguished themselves in copying the original compositions of their uncle, and the numerous repetitions of Guercino's sibyls, of his pictures of St. John, of his Herodiads, and similar pieces, are ascribed more particularly to them. They may all be recognized, however, by a more feeble tone in their tints; and I once saw in the Ercolani palace a Bathsheba of Guercino, along with a copy by one of the Gennari. The former appeared as if newly painted at the time, the latter as if many years previously, such was its inferiority in strength of hand. The two brothers were employed in Cento, in Bologna, and in other cities of Italy; while Benedetto, the ablest of them, was engaged also in England, as court-painter under two reigns. Both would seem to have inherited the style along with the fortune of Gio. Francesco, and, I may also add, his studies; because in the manner of sectaries, they made repeated copies of the heads of his old men, women, and boys, which he himself was in the habit of repeating on his canvass too frequently. There is a S. Leopardo by Benedetto in the cathedral at Osimo, and a S. Zaccaria at the Filippini in Forli, which might have been mistaken for the uncle's, had the nephew displayed somewhat more strength and power of relief. In the same way Cesare, in a Mary Magdalen of the Pazzi, at S. Martino in Bologna, and in other pieces, has succeeded in giving the features better than the spirit of Barbieri. It ought to be observed that Cesare preserved his first manner to the close of his life, and that he was assiduous in teaching at Bologna, where his school was frequented also by foreigners, among whom Simon Gionima distinguished himself as a follower of Guercino, and was well received at Vienna. Benedetto subsequently formed for himself a style in England, both more polished and careful, and exemplified it more particularly in his portraits, which he conducted there for Charles II. and the royal family. On the expulsion of that family he returned to Italy, almost transformed into a Dutch or Flemish painter, such was the truth with which he imitated velvets, lawns, lace, gems, and other ornaments in gold, indeed all that can enrich a portrait, besides drawing it extremely like, and artfully freed from any blemishes in the original. By means of this taste, new in Italy, Benedetto obtained much applause and much employment in portrait, both from princes and individuals. We may here add a Bartolommeo Gennari, brother to Ercole, who resembles Guercino less than any of the three preceding, though extremely natural and spirited. He has a picture of St. Thomas at the Rosario di Cento, in the act of putting his hand to our Saviour's side, and the admiration both of him and the other apostles is very finely expressed. The pupil, and probably the relation of Guercino, was one Lorenzo Gennari di Rimini, at which place is one of his pictures at the Capuccini, very fairly executed.

Francesco Nagli, surnamed, from his country, Centino, was much employed at the Angeli and in other churches at Rimini. He was an excellent imitator of Barbieri, in point of colouring and chiaroscuro; in the rest somewhat dry in design, cold in his attitudes, and no way novel in his ideas. To the same district belonged Stefano Ficatelli, a painter of good invention, who decorated several churches of Ferrara; but more especially an excellent copyist of Guercino, not inferior in this respect to Francesco Bassi, of Bologna, so highly commended by Crespi. Among Guercino's copyists, Gio. Francesco Mutii, or Mucci, of Cento, son of a sister of Guercino, distinguished also as an engraver, held a high rank. Stefano Provenzali, likewise from Cento, and a pupil of Barbieri, applied his talents to battle-pieces, much extolled by Crespi, from whose MSS. I have borrowed several of my notices of the Centese artists.

Two of these, followers of Guercino, are mentioned by Malvasia. They are Cristoforo Serra, a faithful and excellent imitator of Gio. Francesco, and preceptor of Cristoforo Savolini, who has a fine picture of the saint at S. Colomba in Rimini; and Cesare Pronti, an Augustine, born at Rimini, if we give credit to the author of its city guide, and called da Ravenna, on account of his long residence at that place. Both the above cities exhibit his altar-pieces, much extolled, and some chiaroscuri[TN7] happily enough disposed; in particular those histories of St. Jerome painted in the Confraternity of his name at Rimini, with abundant grace and spirit. In Pesaro, also, he exhibited in the church of his order a St. Thomas da Villanova, with beautiful specimens of architecture, and in a more original taste than the two Gennari. The life of this able ecclesiastic has been written by Pascoli, who knew him, insomuch that we may give him credit when he declares that he was born at the Cattolica, of the family of the Baciocchi, afterwards assuming the name of Pronti, the maiden name of his mother. He gives other anecdotes of him; and what is more interesting is the account of his first passion for the art, on contemplating, when a boy, a collection of fine pictures in a shop at the fair of Sinigaglia. He gazed upon them during several hours, unmindful of his meals, and of his parents, who were in search of him through the city, and who on finding him could with difficulty tear him from the spot. They were unable, however, to destroy the fixed determination of his soul to become a painter; the impression was indelible, and he set out for Bologna. There he first entered the school of Barbieri; and afterwards, as we have already remarked, the cloister. Respecting different scholars of Guercino, such as were Preti, Ghezzi, and Triva, it is unnecessary here to repeat what has already been stated in several other schools.

Gio. Lanfranco, one of those distinguished disciples of the Caracci who followed Annibal to Rome, was born at Parma. He was early employed by the Conti Scotti in Piacenza, where, for mere pastime, drawing some figures in charcoal upon a wall, his rare genius shone forth, and was assigned to the cultivation of Agostino Caracci. Frequent mention of him is made in the course of this work. At Parma the reader finds him a pupil to Agostino, and on his death under the care of Lodovico, after which he pursued his studies under Annibal at Rome. Both there and in Naples we have seen him celebrated as a professor and preceptor in both schools. The character of his genius was sought, conceitedly perhaps, but still with truth, by Bellori, in his name; and doubtless it would be difficult to find an artist more bold and striking, alike in conception and in execution. He had formed a peculiar manner, which both in design and expression partakes of the Caracci's, while the composition is drawn from Coreggio. It is a manner at once easy, and elevated by the dignity of the countenances and actions, by the ample and well disposed masses of light and shade, by the nobleness of the drapery and its imposing folds, broad and wholly novel in the art. For this precise reason its grandeur is without that last finish which adds to the worth of other artists, but would in him diminish it. In such a style he was enabled to be less exact without displeasing us, possessing so many admirable qualities, rare conceptions, colours wonderfully harmonized, if not animated; very beautiful foreshortening; contrasts of parts and figures, which have served as models, as is observed by Mengs, for the tasteful style of the moderns.

He adopted this style in a number of pictures for private ornament, both for the Dukes Farnesi, in whose palace at Rome he first began to paint, and for other noblemen. His Polyphemus, conducted for the Casa Borghese in that city, is highly extolled, as well as his scriptural histories at S. Callisto. There are many pictures also from his hand; his St. Andrea Avellino at Rome, enriched with splendid architecture, boasts singular merit; his Dead Christ at Foligno, with the "Padre Eterno," a figure, which though in human form, nevertheless impresses us with grand ideas of the Divine Being; the Transit of our Lady, in Macerata; the S. Rocco, and the S. Corrado, in Piacenza; perhaps the most finished among Lanfranco's productions, and deservedly the most celebrated. But he exhibited this style still more fully in cupolas and other scenes on a grand scale, according to Coreggio's example. When young, he executed a small coloured model of the cupola of the cathedral at Parma, emulating his whole style, in particular that grace of motion, of all by far the most difficult. He imitated it too at S. Andrea della Valle at Rome, and in his picture availed himself of the example afforded by Michelangiolo in architecture, when unable to execute a more beautiful cupola than Brunelleschi's, and desirous of differing from it, he worked from a new design, and succeeded to admiration. This production forms an epoch in the art, inasmuch "as he was the first," says Passeri, "to irradiate the opening of a celestial glory with a splendour of light, of which there was formerly seen no example." ... "Lanfranco's cupola remains a solitary specimen in the way of glories; because, in respect to its celestial idea, in the opinion of the most dispassionate judges, he has attained the highest degree, as well in the harmony of the whole, its chief object, as in the distribution of the colours, in the parts, and in force of chiaroscuro," &c. Nor was this, on which he spent four years, the sole example he left of a fecundity of idea and rare elevation of mind, of which we meet with no account in any other artist, even among the ancient painters. Add to this, the cupolas at the Gesù, and at the Tesoro of S. Gennaro at Naples, where he succeeded Domenichino, with various tribunes and chapels in Rome and Naples, adorned with equal majesty, and which have given to Lower Italy the most genuine examples in this kind, of which the art can boast. From him it was that the Machinists acquired the power of gratifying the eye at larger distances, painting only in part, and in part leaving the work, as he was accustomed to express it, for the air to paint. In the two schools above-mentioned we have embraced his best disciples: to the Bolognese he gave no pupils, as far as I learn, any more than to Romagna and its dependencies; if we except Gio. Francesco Mengucci, of Pesaro, who assisted him in the cupola of St. Andrea; a painter, I believe, for collections, who has been much extolled by Malvasia.

Next to the five heads of schools hitherto recorded, ought to be mentioned Sisto Badalocchi; and the more as he was Annibal's disciple, and long resided with him at Rome. He was fellow citizen, and a faithful companion too of Lanfranco, whose style he approached very nearly. Sisto designed admirably, being preferred by Annibal in this branch to any of his fellow pupils, and even, with singular modesty, to himself. Ample testimony of his ability is proclaimed in the engravings of Raffaello's loggie, executed in conjunction with Lanfranco, and dedicated to Annibal; besides the six prints of Coreggio's grand cupola, a work which, to the public regret, was left incomplete. He was also selected by his master to decorate the chapel of S. Diego, where he directed him to paint from one of his cartoons a history of that saint. In point of invention he was not equal to the leaders of his school; so that, employed in filling up the secondary parts, he assisted Guido and Domenichino at S. Gregorio; and attended Albani at the Verospi palace; although his picture of Galatea left there is worthy of the hand of a great master. He appears to advantage in competition, and mostly excels, as we may gather from the church of St. Sebastian at Rome, where he painted along with Tacconi; and at Reggio, where he rivalled some of the less distinguished artists of Bologna. Besides his other works, that city has to boast the rich cupola of S. Giovanni, on which Sisto conducted a small, but very beautiful copy of that in the cathedral at Parma. Other of his specimens are to be met with in the Modenese state, particularly in the ducal palace at Gualtieri, where he represented in one chamber the Trials of Hercules. Of his pictures at Parma the most celebrated is that of St. Francis, at the Cappuccini; a painting, both in point of figures and landscape, composed in the best taste of the Caracci. For the rest, we may add what has been said of Lanfranco, that he most frequently executed much less than he knew.

So far we have treated of the followers of the Caracci employed at Rome; and these in general, judging from their style, shewed more deference to Annibal than any other of the family. Many others remained at Bologna, who either never visited Rome, or produced nothing there worthy of consideration. These were chiefly attached to Lodovico, in whose studio they had been educated, with the exception of Alessandro Tiarini, who sprung from another school, though he benefited by his advice and example, as much as if Lodovico had really been his master. But he was pupil to Fontana, subsequently of Cesi, and finally also of Passignano at Florence. He had fled thither from his native place on account of a quarrel; and after a lapse of seven years, through the intervention of Lodovico, he was enabled to return to Bologna, leaving at Florence and some places in the state a few paintings in his first easy style, resembling Passignano's. In such style he conducted his S. Barbara, at S. Petronio, a work which failed to please the Bolognese public. To give it greater attractions, he next proceeded to copy from, and to consult Lodovico, not in order to attain his manner, but with the view of improving his own. This task was short to a man of genius, well grounded in the theory of his art, and perhaps more philosophical than any other artist of Bologna. He soon became a different painter, and in his novel taste of composing, of distributing his lights and expressing the passions, he shone like a disciple of the Caracci. Nevertheless he preserved a character distinct from the rest, grounded upon his naturally severe and melancholy disposition. All in him is serious and moderate; the air of his figures, his attitudes, his drapery, varied with few, but noble folds, such as to excite the admiration of Guido himself. He avoids, moreover, very gay and animated colours, chiefly contenting himself with light violets or yellows, and tawny colours, tempered with a little red; but so admirably laid on and harmonized, as to produce the finest feeling of repose to enchant the eye. His subjects, too, are well adapted to his taste, as he generally selected, when he could, such as were of a pathetic and sorrowful cast. For this reason his Magdalens, his S. Peters, and his Madonnas in grief—one of which, presented to the Duke of Mantua, drew tears from his eyes—are held in high esteem.

Subsequently he became expert in foreshortening, and all the intricacies of the art, more particularly in point of invention. There is scarcely one of his works to be met with, that does not exhibit a certain air of novelty and originality of idea. On occasion of representing the Virgin in grief, in the church of S. Benedict, he drew her seated together with St. John and the Magdalen; the one upright, the other kneeling, in the act of contemplating the Redeemer's crown of thorns. Other incidents of his passion also are alluded to; all are silent indeed, but every eye and attitude is eloquent in its silence. Obtaining a commission for an altar-piece in S. Maria Maggiore, to represent St. John and St. Jerome, he shunned the trite expression of drawing them in a glory; but he feigned an apparition, through which the holy doctor, while intent at his studies, appears to receive from the beatified evangelist lectures in theology. His most distinguished production, however, is at S. Domenico, the saint seen raising a man from the dead; a picture abounding with figures varied in point of feature, attitude, and dress; every thing highly select. Lodovico expressed his astonishment at it, and declared that he knew of no master then to compare with Tiarini. It is true that, in this instance, having to compete with Spada, he raised his tone of colouring, and shunned every common form; two precautions which, had he introduced into every work, would have left him perhaps second to none of the Bolognese. He survived until his ninetieth year, and during a long period dwelt at Reggio, whence he had often occasion to proceed to other cities of Lombardy, which preserve many of his altar-pieces, and cabinet pictures. The Modenese gallery abounds with them, his St. Peter being more particularly extolled, seen struck with remorse as he stands outside the prætorium. The architecture, the depth of night lighted up with torches, Christ's judgment beheld in the distance, all conspire to raise the tragic interest of the scene. He was employed also by the Duke of Parma, for whose garden he painted some incidents from the Jerusalem Delivered, conducted in fresco; but which, though much extolled, are no longer met with. In short Tiarini was one of the most eminent artists next to the Caracci, at least in point of composition, expression of features and of the passions, perspective, power and durability of colouring, if not of the most exact elegance.

Lionello Spada was one of the leading geniuses of the school. Sprung from the lowest origin, and employed by the Caracci as a grinder of colours, by dint of hearing their conferences, and observing the process of their labours, he began to design; first under them, and next with Baglione, he acquired a knowledge of the art; during several years studying no other models besides the Caracci. He lived on familiar terms with Dentone, and thus became skilful in the use of perspective. Incensed by a jest of Guido's, he determined to seek revenge by opposing his delicacy of manner with another more full and strong; for which purpose going to Rome, he studied both there and in Malta under Caravaggio, and returned home master of a new style. It does not indeed lower itself to every form, like his, but still is not so elevated as that of the Caracci: it is studied in the naked parts, but not select; natural in point of colouring, with good relief in the chiaroscuro, but too frequently displaying a ruddy tone in the shadows, giving an expression of mannerism. One of Lionello's most characteristic marks is a novelty and audacity, the result of his natural disposition, which was equally agreeable for its pleasantry, and hateful for its insolence. He often competed with Tiarini, always superior in point of spirit and force of colouring; but inferior in all the rest. Thus at S. Domenico, where he represented the saint in the act of burning proscribed books; and this is the best picture on canvass which he exhibited at Bologna. At S. Michele in Bosco also is seen his Miracle of St. Benedict, which the young artists call the Scarpellino of Lionello; a picture so wholly novel as to induce Andrea Sacchi, who was greatly struck with it, to copy the design. In a similar way at the Madonna di Reggio, where both artists painted as usual in competition, as well in oils as in fresco, they appeared, as it were, to go beyond themselves. We often meet with specimens of Spada in private galleries; holy families and scripture histories in half-length figures, like those of Caravaggio and Guercino; his heads full of expression, but not very select. He seems most frequently to have repeated the decollation of St. John the Baptist, often met with in the Bolognese galleries, and the best perhaps is in that of the Malvezzi.

He became painter to Duke Ranuccio at Parma, where he decorated that admirable theatre, which then stood unrivalled. In that city, and at Modena, as well as other places, I have seen some of his pictures in a taste wholly opposed to those of Bologna, displaying a mixture of the Caracci and of Parmigianino. His histories in the ducal gallery at Modena are highly beautiful; such as the Susanna and the Elders, and the Prodigal Son. One of his most remarkable is the Martyrdom of a Saint, at S. Sepolcro in Parma, and the St. Jerome, in the Carmelitani, in the same city. Specimens such as these must have been among his last, at a period when he was residing in affluence at court, and enabled to conduct his works at leisure. His good fortune terminated with the life of Ranuccio; for with the loss of such a patron his talent, too, seemed to have deserted him, and he shortly followed to the tomb. The names of some of his scholars occur in the schools of Lombardy. Here too we ought to add that of Pietro Desani of Bologna, who following him into Reggio, there established himself; a young artist of rapid hand and quick genius, whose works are to be met with very frequently in Reggio and its vicinity.

Lorenzo Garbieri was an artist of more learning and caution than Lionello, though resembling him in point of style. His austere, and almost fiery disposition, with an imagination abounding in wild and mournful ideas, impelled him to a style of painting less open than that of the Caracci. To this cause must be added his emulation of Guido, whom, like Lionello, he wished to humble, by adopting a very powerful manner; and, though he did not put himself under Caravaggio, he eagerly copied his pictures, including all the best at Bologna. Garbieri was one of the most successful imitators of Lodovico; less select in the heads, but grand in the forms, expressive in the attitudes, and studied in his large compositions; insomuch that his paintings at S. Antonio in Milan, which are less loaded with shade, were attributed by Santagostini in his Guide to the Caracci. To this style of the Caracci he added the daring character of Caravaggio, and he was skilful in selecting always funereal subjects most suitable to his genius; so that we meet with little else than scenes of sorrow, slaughter, death, and terror, from his hand. At the Barnabiti, in Bologna, he painted for the chapel of S. Carlo an altar-piece with two lateral pictures; it presents us with the horrors of the Milanese plague, amidst which is seen the saint visiting the sick, and conducting a penitential procession. He painted also at the Filippini in Fano a picture of St. Paul, near the St. Peter of Guido, in the act of raising the young man from the dead; a work of such power of hand and expression as to excite at once terror and pity in the beholders. At S. Maurizio, in Mantua, he exhibited in a chapel the Martyrdom of S. Felicita and her seven children; a piece inferior indeed to the Miracle of St. Paul in point of vigour, but containing such variety of images, and such deathly terror, as not to be surpassed in tragic interest by any thing from the same school. He had the choice of establishing himself as court-painter at Mantua, an office he rejected, preferring to take a wife with a handsome dowry at Bologna. This step was a loss, however, to the art, as mentioned by Malvasia; since from that period finding himself rich, and occupied with family cares, he painted little, and with as little study, leaving his final labours by no means equal to the preceding. His son Carlo applied still less than his father to the profession, though he gave proofs in several works exhibited in public, that in time he would have equalled his father. Lorenzo educated few other pupils, but he was highly esteemed for his profound knowledge, and for his method of communicating it, at once easy and precise, resting upon few but comprehensive maxims.

Giacomo Cavedone was from Sassuolo, and hence included among the artists of the Modenese state by Tiraboschi, in whose work we may read the origin of his career. His genius was more limited, his spirit less animated, than those of the preceding; but being assisted by the Caracci in the right path, he attained to equal, and even greater celebrity. Leaving the intricacies of the art to the more enterprising, he fixed upon attitudes comparatively easy and devoid of foreshortening, gentle expressions distinct from the stronger passions, correct design in his figures, and more particularly in the hands and feet. Nature had endued him with promptness and facility; so that on occasion of designing models, or copying pictures, he with rare exactness took the substance of the subject, and afterwards reduced the whole by a more easy method in his own peculiarly resolute and graceful touch, in which he has always remained original. He was equally novel in his frescos; employing few tints, but so attractive, that Guido was induced to make him his pupil, and retained him at Rome as his assistant. Another striking characteristic was his strength of colouring, which he acquired from those Venetians themselves, who shone the masters of his masters. Here he attained to such excellence, that Albani, when asked whether there were any pictures of Titian's at Bologna, replied, there were not; but we may substitute the two at S. Paolo by Cavedone (a Nativity and an Epiphany) which look like Titian's, and are executed with a bolder hand. One of his most distinguished productions at Bologna is the S. Alò at the Mendicanti, in which Girupeno discovers, besides its fine design, a Titianesque taste that excites astonishment; and a French tourist entitles it a most admirable work, such as might be fairly attributed to the Caracci. The mistake indeed has occurred to persons of first rate tact, most frequently at Imola, on contemplating the beautiful picture of St. Stephen at that church; and yet more out of Italy, in regard to his pictures of private ornament, in which he is more than usually attractive and perfect. Judges know how to recognize Cavedone's hand by his very compendious manner of treating the hair and beards, as well as by that graceful and rapid touch, loaded with much lightish yellow, or burnt terra gialla. Length of proportions is likewise considered another peculiarity, with a flow of the folds more rectilinear than in other artists of the same school. Such ascendancy in the art was maintained by Cavedone during some years, till the death of a favourite son, who had early distinguished himself in the same career, united to other heavy sorrows, deprived him of his powers, and he subsequently executed nothing of importance. A specimen of that period is in possession of the fathers of S. Martino; an Ascension that excites only our compassion, with similar pieces met with throughout Bologna, that can boast no glimpse of grace. Still deteriorating, he was at length deprived of commissions and reduced to penury, which, in his old age, attended him to the tomb.

Lucio Massari possessed a more joyous spirit, ever glad and festal; devoted to the theatre and to the chase, rather than to his academy and his pallet; being usually impatient and averse to commence his subjects, until his genius and good humour were propitious. For this reason his works are few, but conducted in a happy vein, graceful and finished, both in colour and in taste appearing to breathe of cheerfulness. His style most resembles Annibal's, whose works he copied to admiration, and after whose example, while a few months at Rome, he designed the most finished and noble remnants of Grecian sculpture. There shines also in his countenances the spirit of Passerotti, his earliest master, and more frequently the gracefulness of his near friend, Albani, whose society he enjoyed both in his studio and his villa, and in works undertaken in conjunction. His S. Gaetano, at the Teatini, is crowned with a glory of exquisitely graceful cherubs, that seem from the hand of Albani; and in his other pictures we often recognise those full countenances, those delicate fleshes, that sweetness, and those sportful expressions, in which revelled the genius of Albani. In point of beauty, the Noli me tangere, at the Celestini, and the Nuptials of St. Catherine, at S. Benedetto, are among his most esteemed pieces; to say nothing of his histories at the Cortile of S. Michele in Bosco, where he left many very elegant specimens.

On occasion of treating strong or tragic subjects, he did not shrink from the task; and although he had a real knowledge of the art, he conducted them without that extreme study of foreshortenings and naked parts, of which others make so lavish a display. He shewed noble clearness and decision, fine colouring, a grand spirit, enlivening them with light and graceful figures, more particularly of women. Such is the Slaughter of the Innocents, at the Bonfigliuoli palace, and the Fall of Christ, at the Certosini, a most imposing production, from the number, variety, and expression of the figures, whose pictoric fire surpasses all we could mention from the hand of Albani. He has left some cabinet pictures, always in good design, and mostly possessing soft and savoury tints; so that all we would farther look for is, occasionally, a more gradual distribution of tints in the background of his pieces. Among other pupils, he instructed Sebastiano Brunetti, polished by Guido, a sweet and delicate artist, but of brief career; and Antonio Randa of Bologna. Malvasia has observed, that there is little good to be said respecting him, apparently alluding to a deed of homicide committed by him at Bologna. In other respects, he includes him among the best pupils, first of Guido, next of Massari, to whose style he became attached. On account of his reputation the Duke of Modena granted him an asylum in his state, declaring him, according to Orlandi, his court-painter, in 1614. Here he was much employed, and subsequently at Ferrara, for the most part at S. Filippo; also in many places of the Polesine, where I find his Martyrdom of S. Cecilia, in possession of the Sign. Redetti, at Rovigo, the most celebrated of his productions. Finally, he betook himself to the cloister, a fact unnoticed by Malvasia, which might have induced him to speak of him in milder terms.

Pietro Facini entered late into the profession, at the suggestion of Annibal Caracci, who from one of his playful sketches in charcoal, declared how excellent a painter he would become, if he were to enter his school. Annibal subsequently regretted the discovery, not only because Facini's progress excited his jealousy, but, because, on leaving the academy, he became his rival in educating young artists, and even plotted against his life. He has two striking characteristics, vivacity in his gestures, and in the expression of his heads, such as to place him on a footing with Tintoretto, and a truth of carnations, which induced Annibal himself to observe, that he seemed to have ground human flesh in his colours. With this exception, he has nothing superior; feeble in point of design, too large in his naked figures of adults, incorrect in the placing of his hands and heads. Neither had he time to perfect himself, dying young, and before the Caracci, in 1602. There is a picture of the Patron Saints, at S. Francesco, in Bologna, with a throng of cherubs, which is indeed among his best works. In the Malvezzi collection, and in others of the city, are much esteemed some of his Country Dances, and Sports of Boys, in the manner of Albani, but on a larger scale. He had a pupil in Gio. Mario Tamburini, who afterwards attached himself to Guido, forming himself on his manner, as we have already stated.

Francesco Brizio, gifted with rare genius, was, up to his twentieth year, employed as a shoe-maker's boy. Impelled, at length, by his bias for the art, he acquired a knowledge of design from Passerotti, and of engraving from Agostino Caracci. Lastly, he commenced painting under Lodovico, and very soon arrived at such celebrity, that by some he has been pronounced the most eminent disciple of the Caracci. Doubtless, if we except the previous five, he was equal to any others, and, excepting Domenichino, gifted with the most universal genius. He was not deficient, like Guido, in perspective; nor in the branch of landscape, like Tiarini; nor in splendour of architecture, like so many others. In these accessaries he surpassed all his rivals, as we gather from his histories, painted for S. Michele in Bosco; at least such was the opinion of Andrea Sacchi. He is extremely correct in his figures, and perhaps approached Lodovico more closely than any other artist. The graceful beauty of his cherubs excites admiration, an excellence at that period so greatly studied by all the school; and here, in the opinion of Guido, he outshone even Bagnacavallo. His chief talent lay in imitation; owing to which, and his character for indecision, in addition to the number of great artists, superior to him in manners, he was deprived of assistants and commissions, and reduced to execute such as he had solicited at very insignificant prices. One of the most extensive altar-pieces in the city is from his hand, representing the Coronation of the Virgin, at S. Petronio, with a few figures in the foreground truly joyous and well arranged; besides others in the distance grouped and diminished with art; a picture of great merit even in strength of colouring. He produced also for the noble family Angelelli the Table of Cebes, in one grand painting; the work of an entire year, which displayed all the depth, imagination, and genius of a great artist. There are also a number of small engravings from his hand, in which he often approaches Guido.

His son Filippo and Domenico degli Ambrogi, called Menichino del Brizio, were his most distinguished disciples. These artists painted more for private ornament than for that of the churches. The latter became celebrated for his design; was employed chiefly in friezes for chambers, in architecture, and landscape in fresco, sometimes in conjunction with Dentone and Colonna, sometimes alone. He was also a finished artist of pictures for private rooms, occasionally exhibiting there copious histories, as in that we read of in the full and well drawn up catalogue of the Sig. Canon Vianelli's pictures at Chioggia. It presents us with the entrance of a pontiff into the city of Bologna. It is not surprising that he should be acknowledged and esteemed even in the Venetian territories, having been the preceptor of Fumiani, and master of Pierantonio Cerva, who painted a good deal for the Paduan state.

Gio. Andrea Donducci, called from his father's profession Mastelletta,[41] inherited a genius for the art. Impatient, however, of the precepts of the Caracci, his masters, he neglected to ground himself in the art, was unequal to designing naked figures, and far from producing any masterpiece. His method was short, and wholly intent upon attracting the eye by effect; loading his pictures with shadow in such a way as to conceal the outlines, and opposing to his shadows masses of light sufficiently strong, thus succeeding in disguising from judges the inaccuracies of his design, and gratifying the multitude with a display of apparent novelty. I have often imagined that this artist had great influence with the sect of the Tenebrosi, which afterwards spread itself through the Venetian state, and almost every district in Lombardy. He was enabled to support his credit by a noble spirit of design, by a tolerable imitation of Parmigianino, the sole artist adapted to his disposition, and by a natural facility that enabled him to colour a very large extent of canvass in a short time. Among such specimens are the Death, and the Assumption of the Virgin, at the Grazie, and some similar histories, not unfrequent in Bologna. Perhaps his picture of S. Irene, at the Celestini, is superior to any other. When advanced in life, hearing the applause bestowed on the clear, open style, he began to practise it, but with no kind of success, not possessing ability to appear to advantage out of his own obscure manner. In his former one he had painted at S. Domenico two miracles of the saint, which were esteemed his masterpieces; but these he altered according to his new method, and they were thenceforth regarded among his most feeble performances. In his half-figures the same diversity of manner is observable; and those executed in the first, such as his Miracle of the Manna, in the Spada palace, with others at Rome, are justly held in esteem. The same may be said of his landscapes, which, in many galleries, are attributed to the Caracci; but the taste in the rapidity of touch, very original and remarkable in Mastelletta, is sufficient to distinguish them. Annibal was so well pleased with these pictures for galleries, that, having his company at Rome, he advised him to settle there and confine himself to similar labours; advice by no means pleasing to Donducci. But he a good deal frequented the studio of Tassi, and these artists mutually assisted each other, freely communicating between themselves what they knew. Soon after he returned to Bologna, and resumed his more extensive works; but met with serious disappointments, such as to induce him to enter as a friar, first among the Conventuals, next with the canons of S. Salvatore. He educated no pupils of merit, except that one Domenico Mengucci, of Pesaro, resembled Mastelletta a good deal in his landscape; an artist better known at Bologna than in his native place.

Besides the forementioned disciples of the Caracci academy, several others are entitled to consideration; such as Schedone and more names recorded in the schools already described, with a few yet left to mention in those of which we have to treat. Many names will also find a place among the Bolognese painters of landscape, or those of perspective. A few others, who devoted themselves to figures, have been scarcely alluded to by Malvasia, either because then living, or not so distinguished as some of the preceding; nevertheless they are not despicable, for to hold a second or third rank, where Domenichino and Guido are the foremost, is a degree of honour not to be regretted. One of these is Francesco Cavazzone, a writer too on the art, of whom the Canon Crespi subsequently collected very ample notices, in particular extolling a Magdalen kneeling at the feet of the Redeemer, a truly imposing picture, that ornamented the church of that saint in via S. Donato. Of much the same degree of merit was Vincenzio Ansaloni, who gave only two altar-pieces to the public, but sufficient to establish his title to the character of a great artist. Giacomo Lippi, called also Giacomone da Budrio, was another distinguished artist, of universal genius, in whose fresco histories at the portico of the Nunziata we trace the pupil of Lodovico, not very select, but of prompt and practised hand. Some pictures in fresco too by Piero Pancotto, at S. Colombano, gave rise to feelings of disgust from the ridicule attempted to be cast on his own parish priest, caricatured by him in the features of a holy evangelist, though as an artist he could not be despised.

Among the histories at S. Michele in Bosco, already described, is seen the Sepulture of the SS. Valeriano and Tiburzio by Alessandro Albini, a painter of spirit; the Giving Alms of S. Cecilia, by Tommaso Campana, who afterwards followed Guido; the St. Benedict among the Thorns, by Sebastiano Razali; the Conference between Cecilia and Valeriano, by Aurelio Bonelli; all respectable artists, except that Malvasia blames the last mentioned as unworthy of a school productive of so many noble disciples; but it is rare that in such rich abundance some abortive specimen does not appear. Florio and Gio. Batista Macchi, Enea Rossi, Giacinto Gilioli, Ippolito Ferrantini, Pier-Maria Porettano, Antonio Castellani, Antonia Pinelli;[42] all these gave to the Bolognese public some superior specimens of their skill, and more in the adjacent places; and we may add Gio. Batista Vernici, who was subsequently employed by the Duke of Urbino. Nothing remains there from the hand of Andrea Costa, or of Vincenzio Gotti; of whom the former, according to Malvasia, painted for the S. Casa of Loreto some admirable pieces, now known, if I mistake not, under another name. The latter resided in the kingdom of Naples, mostly at Reggio, an artist of singular rapidity, whose altar-pieces in that city alone amount to the number of two hundred and eighteen. Other followers of the Caracci are known to have renounced painting in favour of engraving and sculpture. The academy was closed on Lodovico's death; and the casts, with other requisites for the art, remained for a long period at Bologna. Domenico Mirandola, on the opening of Facini's academy, quitted that of Lodovico, became a celebrated sculptor, enriched himself with the spoils of both, and kept an open studio, regulated according to the method of his first masters; called for this reason by some the studio of the Caracci. Names, however, are not realities; and correctness of design was not maintained in this soi-disant academy, but gradually deteriorated; the honour of its revival being reserved for the genius of Cignani, of whom we shall say more in our fourth epoch.