[Footnote 33: In the _Statuti de" Pittori_, it is written Mireti; and the same work contains memoirs of him in 1423 and 1441; years, however, which do not accord with his dependence on the Bellini. This Girolamo might possibly have been the brother, or other relation, of that Gio.

Miretto, for whom see p. 13. These two names will do away with the _Moreto_ of Vasari, and we must subst.i.tute Mireto or Miretto.]

[Footnote 34: I repeat the epigram, which is subscribed in ancient characters, on the strength of which we may believe that the work was esteemed one of the most valuable the art had produced up to that period, transcribed by the very frequently commended Sig. Co. Cav.

Lazara; it is thus:

Non hic Parrhasio, non hic tribuendus Apelli, Hos licet Auctores dignus habere labor.

Euganeus, vixdum impleto ter mense, Jacobus Ex Montagnana n.o.bile pinxit opus.]

[Footnote 35: He is thus named in the "Statuti de" Pittori," of Padua, and in the _MS. Zen._ whence we may correct Ridolfi, who calls him Girolamo.]

[Footnote 36: In vol. iii. ed. Rom. p. 427, it is written by mistake Mantegna, where it says that he, Speranza, and Veruzio, studied design under Mantegna.]

[Footnote 37: Padre Faccioli, in his third volume of the _Inscrizioni della Citta e territorio di Vicenza_, records the following epigraph, _Jo. Sperantiae de Vangeribus me pinxit_, in which Vangeribus may, perhaps, apply to some small village in the territory of Vicenza. He is wholly silent respecting Veruzio, thus confirming the suspicion that his name is a mere mistake of Vasari, whom it is hoped our posterity will still continue to correct, and yet leave sufficient employment for their children. The following is my conjecture. P. Faccioli gives an account of a picture that remains in S. Francesco di Schio; it is composed in the manner usually adopted in the composition of the marriage of S.

Catherine; and there are also other saints well executed in the Mantegna style, as is observed by the Cav. Gio. de Lazara, whose authority I esteem excellent. It bears the inscription, "Franciscus Verlus de Vicentia pinxit xx. Junii. M. D. XII.;" and to this is added by Faccioli another old painting by the same hand, remaining at Sercedo. Now I contend that the name of this painter, being reported to Vasari, with its diminutive termination, like many others, borrowed either from the stature or the age, (in the Venetian dialect it was Verlucio or Verluzo) it was afterwards given by him in his history as Veruzio. The critics of the Greek writers will know how to do me justice in this, for this mode of discovering and correcting names I have derived from them.]

[Footnote 38: To judge from some pictures at Bergamo, we might suppose him educated in the style of the fourteenth century; but he afterwards approached nearer to the modern, as we perceive at Padua, where he resembles Palma Vecchio; and this is sufficiently conspicuous also in Friuli, where we make mention of him at a more cultivated era.]

[Footnote 39: In this character is the larger picture at S. Niccolo, a church of the Dominicans in Treviso, in which the cupola, the columns, and the perspective, with the throne of the virgin seated with the infant Jesus, and surrounded by saints standing, the steps ornamented by a harping seraph, all discover Bellini"s composition; but I had not seen the work, until after the former edition of my history at Ba.s.sano. It was painted in 1520, by P. Marco Pensaben, a.s.sisted by P. Marco Maraveia, both Dominican priests, engaged for the purpose from Venice.

They remained there until July, 1521, when the first of them secretly fled from the convent, and the altarpiece of Treviso was completed in a month by one Gian-Girolamo, a painter invited from Venice; supposed to be Girolamo Trevisano, the younger. This artist is not, however, mentioned, as I am aware, either, by the citizens, or by foreigners, by any other name than Girolamo, and calculating from the chronology of Ridolfi, he must then have been thirteen years of age. Until this subject be more clearly investigated, I must confess my ignorance of such a Gian-Girolamo. But I am better acquainted with the name of Pensaben, who was afterwards found, and in 1524 was, as before, a Dominican friar at Venice; but a few years after, in 1530, is mentioned in authentic books belonging to the order, being registered among those who had either left the order or were dead. P. Federici believes him to have been the same as F. Bastiano del Piombo, an untenable supposition, as I have elsewhere shown. I believe Pensaben to have been an excellent artist in the Bellini manner, though not commemorated in history, nor by his order. In an order so prolific with genius, and in an age abounding with great names, he is by no means a solitary instance of this: the present work being found to contain many other examples.]

[Footnote 40: As early as the eleventh century, or thereabouts, it would appear that some similar kind of art was in repute in Germany. The monk Theophilus, in the works before mentioned, "De omni scientia artis pingendi," alluding, at the commencement, to the most esteemed productions of every country, observes: "quidquid in fenestrarum varietate preciosa diligit Francia; quidquid in auri, argenti, cupri, ferri, lignorum, lapidumque subtilitate sollers laudat Germania."

_Codice Viennese._]

VENETIAN SCHOOL.

SECOND EPOCH.

_Giorgione, t.i.tian, Tintoret, Jacopo da Ba.s.sano, Paolo Veronese._

Behold us at length arrived at the golden period of the Venetian School, which like the others of Italy, produced its most distinguished ornaments about the year 1500; artists who at once eclipsed the fame of their predecessors, and the hopes of attaining to equal excellence on the part of their successors. In reaching this degree of eminence, it is true they pursued different paths, though they all aimed at acquiring the same perfection of colouring; the most natural, the most lively, and the most applauded of any single school of the age; a distinction they likewise conferred upon their posterity, forming the distinguishing characteristic of the Venetian painters. The merit of this has been attributed to the climate by some, who a.s.sert, that in Venice, and the adjacent places, nature herself has bestowed a warmer and deeper colour upon objects than elsewhere; a frivolous supposition, and undeserving of much of our attention, inasmuch as the artists of Holland and Flanders, in climates so extremely opposite, have obtained the same meed of praise. Neither is it to be attributed to the quality of the colours; both Giorgione and t.i.tian having been known to make use of few, and these, so far from being selected or procured elsewhere, exposed to sale in all the public shops in Venice. If it should again be objected, that in those days the colours were sold purer and less adulterated, I admit there may be some degree of truth in this, inasmuch as Pa.s.seri, in his life of Orbetto, complained at that time of the early decay of many pictures, "owing to the quality of the colours fraudulently sold by the retailers." But I would merely inquire, if it were possible, that materials thus pure and uncontaminated should so often fall into the hands of the Venetians and their Flemish imitators, yet be so seldom met with in the rest of the schools. The cause of their superiority is to be sought, therefore, in their mechanism and art of colouring; in regard to which the best Venetian painters conformed, in some points, to the most celebrated artists of Italy. In other points, however, they differed from them. It was a common practice at that period, to prepare with a chalk surface the altarpieces and pictures which were intended to be executed; and that white ground, favourable to every variety of tint the painter could lay upon it, equally favoured the production of a certain polish, floridity, and surprising transparency; a custom which, being laid aside out of indolence and avarice, I am happy to perceive seems about to be renewed. But in addition to this the Venetians were in possession of an art that may be considered peculiar to themselves. For it may be observed, that the chief part of them during these three centuries, produced the effect of their paintings, not so much by a strong layer of colours, as by separate strokes of the pencil; and each colour being thus adapted to its place, without much repeating or refining it, they still continued augmenting the work, by which the tints were preserved clear and virgin; a result which requires no less promptness of hand than of intellect, besides education, and a taste cultivated from the earliest period. Hence the artist Vecchia was accustomed to say, that by dint of copying pictures executed with diligence, a painter will acquire the same quality; but to succeed in copies from a t.i.tian or a Paolo, and to imitate their stroke, is a task surmounted only by the Venetians, whether natives or educated in their school. (_Boschini_, p. 274.)

Should it here be inquired what good result may attend such a method, I reply that Boschini points out two very considerable ones. The first of them is, that by this mode of colouring, which he terms _di macchia_ and _di pratica_, a certain hardness of style may more easily be avoided; and the other, that, better than any other, it gives a bolder relief to paintings in the distance: and pictures being intended to be thus viewed, rather than closer to the eye, such an object is by this process most easily attainable. I am aware of the moderns having misapplied and abused these maxims; but they were meant to have been judiciously employed, and I only wish to propose as examples the most celebrated of the school who so ably comprehended the method, and the limits of such a practice. Nor was the harmony of colours better understood by any other artists, insomuch, that the mode of a.s.similating and of contrasting them, may be considered as the second source of the delightful and lively, so predominant in their works, and more especially in those of t.i.tian and his contemporaries.

Such skill was not merely confined to the fleshy parts, in whose colour the disciples of t.i.tian have so far excelled every other school; it extended also to the drapery. For indeed, there are no pieces of velvets, of stuffs, or of c.r.a.pes, which they did not imitate to perfection, more particularly in their portraits, in which the Venetians of that period abounded, displaying specimens the most ornamental and beautiful. The cavalier Mengs is of opinion, that also to this branch of the art, requiring the strictest attention to truth, and conferring a peculiar kind of interest upon a picture, may be in some measure attributed the degree of power and truth acquired by those eminent colourists. Their merit was moreover conspicuous in imitating every kind of work in gold, in silver, and every species of metal; so much so, that there are no royal palaces or lordly feasts, read of in any poet, which do not appear more n.o.bly represented in some Venetian paintings. It was equally remarkable in point of landscape, which sometimes surpa.s.sed the efforts of the Flemish painters, and in architectural views, which, with a magnificence unknown elsewhere, they succeeded in introducing into their compositions, as we had before occasion to observe of the artists of the fourteenth century; a species of industry extremely favourable, likewise, to the distribution, the variety, and to the complete effect of groups of figures.

In these extensive compositions, which about the period of the Bellini abounded in half-length or diminutive figures, there has since been displayed a grandeur of proportions which has led the way to the most enlarged productions, on the scale we have more recently seen. The most terrific among these is the Supper of Paolo Veronese at S. Giorgio, in which the gifts of nature are so n.o.bly seconded by the exhibition of talent, which appears to have been transmitted by succession through this school, nearly until the present day. Such ability consists in finely designing all the details of any work, however great, including the transmission and gradations of light, so that the eye of itself seems to follow its track, and embraces the entire effect from one end of the canva.s.s to the other. And it has been observed by several who have witnessed ancient paintings (a violation of good taste, of late but too common,) cut up and curtailed to adapt them to the size of walls and doors, that such an operation often succeeds tolerably well with the pictures of other schools, but is extremely difficult with those of the Venetians; so intimately is one part connected with another, and harmonized with the whole.

These, along with other similar qualities that flatter the eye of the spectator, that attract the learned and the unlearned, and seem to transport the mind by the novelty and the reality of the representation, const.i.tute a style which is termed by Reynolds the ornamental, who, likewise, among all the schools, yields the palm in this to the Venetians; a style afterwards introduced by Vovet into France, by Rubens into Flanders, and by Giordano into Naples and into Spain. The same English critic places it in the second rank, next to the grand style, and remarks that the professors of the sublime were fearful of falling into luxurious and pompous exhibitions of the accessaries; no less because prejudicial to the artist"s industry in point of design and in point of expression, than because the transitory impression which it produces upon the spectator, seldom reaches the heart. And truly, as the sublime of Tully is more simple than the ornament of Pliny, and seems to dread any excitement of admiration for the beautiful, lest its energy should be unnerved by too studied a degree of elegance; so is it with the grandeur of Michelangiolo and of Raffaello, that without seeking to occupy us with the illusions of art, goes at once to the heart; terrifies or inspires us; awakens emotions of pity, of veneration, and the love of truth, exalting us, as it were, above ourselves, and leading us to indulge, even in spite of ourselves, the most delicious of all feelings, in that of wonder. It is upon this account that Reynolds considered it dangerous for students to become enamoured of the Venetian style; an opinion, which, judiciously understood, may prove of much service to such artists as are calculated to succeed in the more sublime. But since amidst such diversity of talent, there must appear artists better adapted to adorn than to express; it would not be advisable that their genius should be urged into a career in which it will leave them always among the last, withdrawing them, at the same time, from another in which they might have taken the lead. Let him, therefore, who in this art of silent eloquence possesses not the energy and spirit of Demosthenes, apply himself wholly, heart and soul, to the elegance, the pomp, and the copiousness of Demetrius Phalereus.

Let it not from this be supposed, that the sole merit of the Venetians consists in surprising the spectator by the effects of ornament and colour, and that the customary style and true method of painting, were not understood in those parts. Yet I am aware of the opinion of many foreigners, who having never removed beyond their native spot, are inclined to p.r.o.nounce a general censure upon these artists, as being ignorant of design, too laboured in their composition, unacquainted with ideal beauty, and even unable to understand expression, costume, and grace; finally, that the rapidity so much in vogue with the whole of the school,[41] led them to despise the rules of art, not permitting them to complete the work before them, out of an anxiety to engage in other labours, for the sake of the profits afforded by them. To some of their painters, doubtless, these observations may apply, but a.s.suredly not to the whole; for if one city be obnoxious to them, another is not so much so; or if they can be affirmed of a certain epoch or cla.s.s of artists, it would be an idle attempt to fix them upon all. This school is in truth most abundant, no less in artists than in fine examples in every characteristic of the art; but neither one nor the other are sufficiently known and appreciated. Yet it is hoped the reader will be enabled to form a more correct idea of both; and after having cultivated an acquaintance with the Bellini, the Giorgioni, and the t.i.tians, besides other masters, will trace, as it were from one parent stock, the various offshoots transplanted throughout the state, imbibing, according to the nature of the soil, and the vicinity of other climes, new tastes and qualities, without losing at the same time their original and native flavour. And if in the progress of our history we shall here and there, among plants of n.o.bler growth, meet with some "_lazzi sorbi_," to use the words of our poet, some bitter apples, growing at their side; let these only be attacked; but let not the disgrace attaching to a few careless artists be calumniously extended to the whole of their school.

The happy era we are now entering upon, commences with Giorgione and with t.i.tian, two names which, connected together, yet in compet.i.tion with each other, divided between them, as it were, the whole body of disciples throughout the capital and the state; insomuch that we find no city that had not more or less adopted for its model one or other of these masters. I shall proceed to describe them separately, each with his own cla.s.s, as I believe such a method most favourable, to shew how the whole of the school I am describing was almost entirely derived and propagated from two masters of a similar style. Giorgio Barbarelli of Castelfranco, more generally known by the name of Giorgione, from a certain grandeur conferred upon him by nature, no less of mind than form, and which appears also impressed upon his productions, as the character is said to be in the handwriting, was educated in the school of the Bellini. But impelled by a spirit conscious of its own powers, he despised that minuteness in the art which yet remained to be exploded, at once subst.i.tuting for it a certain freedom and audacity of manner, in which the perfection of painting consists. In this view he may be said to be an inventor; no artist before his time having acquired that mastery of his pencil, so hardy and determined in its strokes, and producing such an effect in the distance. From that period he continued to enn.o.ble his manner, rendering the contours more round and ample, the foreshortenings more new, the expression of the countenance more warm and lively, as well as the motions of his figures. His drapery, with all the other accessaries of the art became more select, the gradations of the different colours more soft and natural, and his chiaroscuro more powerful and effective. It was in this last indeed, that Venetian painting was the most deficient, while it had been introduced into the rest of the schools by Vinci previous to the sixteenth century. Vasari is of opinion that from the same artist, or rather from some of his designs, it was first acquired by Giorgione, a supposition that Boschini will not admit, maintaining that he was only indebted for it to himself, being his own master and scholar. And, in truth, the taste of Lionardo and of the Milanese artists who acquired it from him, not only differs in point of design, inclining in the contours and in the features more towards the graceful and the beautiful, while Giorgione affects rather a round and full expression; but it is contrasted with it, likewise, in the chiaroscuro. The composition of Lionardo abounds much more in shades, which are gradually softened with greater care; while in regard to his lights he is far more sparing, and studies to unite them in a small s.p.a.ce with a degree of vividness that produces surprise.

Giorgione"s composition, on the other hand, is more clear and open, and with less shade; his middle tints, also, partake in nothing of the ironcast and grey, but are natural and beautiful; and in short, he approaches nearer to the style of Coreggio, if Mengs at least judges rightly, than to any other master. Still I am far from concluding that Vinci in no way contributed to the formation of Giorgione"s new manner; every improvement in the art having taken its rise from some former one, which being admired for its novelty, became familiar to surrounding artists by example, and to more distant ones by its reputation, thus adding what was before wanting to the perfection of the art. And in this way have geniuses in different parts arisen, destined to increase and improve such advantages. This, if I mistake not, has been the case with the science of perspective, subsequent to the time of Pier della Francesca; with regard to foreshortening after Melozzo; and also with chiaroscuro after Lionardo.

The works of Giorgione were, for the chief part, executed in fresco, upon the facades of the houses, more particularly in Venice, where there now remains scarcely a relic of them, as if to remind us only of what have perished. Many of his pictures, on the other hand, both there and in other places, painted in oil and preserved in private houses, are found in excellent condition; the cause of which is attributed to the strong mixture of the colours, and to the full and liberal use of his pencil. In particular we meet with portraits, remarkable for the soul of their expression, for the air of their heads, the novelty of the garments, of the hair, of the plumes, and of the arms, no less than for the lively imitation of the living flesh, in which, however warm and sanguine are the tints which he applied, he adds to them so much grace, that in spite of thousands of imitators, he still stands alone. In a.n.a.lyzing some of these tints, Ridolfi discovered that they bore little resemblance to those used by the ancient Greeks, and quite distinct from those tawny, brown, and azure colours, since introduced at the expense of the more natural. Such of his pictures as are composed in the style of his Dead Christ, in the Monte di Pieta at Trevigi, the S. Omobono at the Scuola de" Sarti, in Venice, or the Tempest stilled by the Saint, at that of S. Marco, in which among other figures are those of three rowers drawn naked, excellent both in their design and their att.i.tudes; such are the rarest triumphs of his art. The city of Milan possesses two of an oblong shape, in which several of the figures extend beyond the proportions of Poussin, and may be p.r.o.nounced rather full than beautiful. One of these is to be viewed at the Ambrosiana, the other in the archepiscopal palace; esteemed by some the happiest effort of Giorgione that now survives. It represents the child Moses just rescued from the Nile, and presented to the daughter of Pharaoh. Very few colours, but well harmonized and distributed, and finely broken with the shades, produce a sort of austere union, if I may be allowed the expression, and may be a.s.similated to a piece of music composed of few notes, but skilfully adapted, and delightful beyond any more noisy combination of sounds.

Giorgione died at the early age of thirty-four, in 1511. Thus his productions, rather than the pupils he educated, remained to instruct the Venetians. Vasari, however, mentions several who have been contested by other writers. A Pietro Luzzo is recorded by Ridolfi;--a native of Feltre, called Zarato, or Zarotto,--who after being a pupil became a rival of Giorgione, and seduced from his house a woman, to whom he was pa.s.sionately attached, at whose loss it has been a.s.serted by some that the disappointed artist died in despair. By others, on the contrary, he is said to have died of a disease contracted during his intercourse with the same lady. This Zarato, as we read in a MS. history of Feltre, and in a MS. upon the pictures of Udine, is the same whom Vasari ent.i.tles, _Morto da Feltro_; and adds, that he went when young to Rome, and subsequently flourished in Florence and elsewhere, distinguished for his skill in grotesques; of which more hereafter. Going afterwards to Venice, he is known to have a.s.sisted Giorgione in the paintings he made for the Fondaco de" Tedeschi, about the year 1505; and, lastly, having remained some time at his native place, he embraced a military life, obtaining the rank of captain. Proceeding to Zara, he fell in battle near that place in his forty-fifth year; at least such is the account of Vasari. From the mention of his native place of Feltre, his a.s.sisting Giorgione in his works, and his surnames of _Zarato_ and _Morto_, I think there is some degree of probability in the a.s.sertion contained in these MSS. though the dates attaching to the life of Morto in Vasari, will not countenance the supposition of Ridolfi, of his being the pupil of Giorgione, a man considerably younger than himself; so that I should conjecture that Ridolfi may have denominated him a scholar of Giorgione, because, when already of a mature age, he painted under him as his a.s.sistant. Notwithstanding the a.s.sertion of Vasari, he had a tolerable genius for figures, and in the history already cited, written by Cambrucci, and in possession of the bishop of Feltre, a picture of our Lady between saints Francesco and Antonio, placed at S. Spirito, and another at Villabruna, besides a figure of Curtius on horseback, upon a house at Teggie, are attributed to his hand. We gather from the same history that another Luzzi, by name Lorenzo, a contemporary and perhaps friend of Pietro, painted very skilfully in fresco, at the church of S.

Stefano; and that he was equally successful in oils, he himself a.s.sures us in his altarpiece of the proto-martyr S. Stefano, conspicuous for correctness of design, beauty of forms, force of tints, and bearing his name and the date of 1511.

The most distinguished disciple of the school of Giorgione is Sebastiano, a Venetian, commonly called, from the habit and office he afterwards a.s.sumed at Rome, Fra Sebastiano del Piombo. Having left Gian Bellini, he attached himself to Giorgione, and in the tone of his colours, and the fulness of his forms, imitated him better than any other artist. An altarpiece in S. Gio. Crisostomo, from his hand, was by some mistaken for the work of his master; so strikingly does it abound with his manner. It may be presumed, indeed, that he was a.s.sisted in the design; Sebastiano being known to possess no surprising richness of invention,--slow in the composition of most of his figures; irresolute; eager to undertake, but difficult to commence, and most difficult in the completion. Hence we rarely meet with any of his histories or his altarpieces comparable to the Nativity of the Virgin, at S. Agostino, in Perugia, or the _Flagellazione_ at the Osservanti of Viterbo, which is esteemed the best picture in the city. Pictures for private rooms, and portraits, he painted in great number, and with comparative ease; and we no where meet with more beautiful hands, more rosy flesh tints, or more novel accessaries than in these. Thus, in taking the portrait of Pietro Aretino, he distinguished five different tints of black in his dress; imitating with exactness those of the velvet, of the satin, and so of the rest. Being invited to Rome by Agostino Chigi, and there esteemed as one of the first colourists of his time, he painted in compet.i.tion with Peruzzi, and with Raffaello himself; and the rival labours of all three are still preserved in a hall of the Farnesina, at that period the house of the Chigi.

Sebastiano became aware, that in such a compet.i.tion, his own design would not appear to much advantage in Rome, and he improved it. But occasionally he fell into some harshness of manner, owing to the difficulties he there encountered. Yet, in several of his works, he was a.s.sisted by Michelangiolo, from whose design he painted that _Pieta_, placed at the Conventuali of Viterbo, and the Transfiguration, with the other pieces which he produced, during six years, for S. Pietro in Montorio, at Rome. It is stated by Vasari, that Michelangiolo united with him, in order to oppose the too favourable opinion entertained by the Romans, of Raffaello. He adds, that on the death of the latter, Sebastiano was universally esteemed the first artist of his time, upheld by the favour of Michelangiolo; Giulio Romano, and the rest of the rival school, being all inferior to him. I am almost at a loss how to judge of a fact, which, if discredited, seems to cast an imputation upon the historian, and, if received, reflects very little credit upon Buonarotti; and the reader will do best, perhaps, to decide for himself.

The name of Sebastiano must also be added to the list of inventors, for his new method of oil painting upon stone, upon which plan he executed the _Flagellazione_, for S. Pietro in Montorio, a work as much defaced by time as the others which he made in fresco remain at the same place entire. He coloured also upon stone several pictures for private houses, a practice highly esteemed at its earlier period, but which was soon abandoned owing to the difficulty of carriage. Upon this plan, or some other resembling it, we find several pictures of the sixteenth century executed, and which, at this period, are esteemed in museums real antiques.[42]

Among the disciples of the School of Giorgione, were, likewise, Gio. da Udine and Francesco Torbido, a Veronese, who has been surnamed _il Moro_, and both were distinguished practisers of his tints. In regard to Giovanni, afterwards a pupil of Raffaello, we have written, and we shall again write elsewhere. Moro remained but little with Giorgione, a much longer while with Liberale. Of this last he imitated very truly both the diligence and the design, in the former even surpa.s.sing him; always a severe critic upon himself, and slow in completing his undertakings. We rarely meet with him in altarpieces, still more rarely in collections of paintings, for which he was often employed in sacred subjects and in portraits; deficient in nothing, except, perhaps, we could wish to see somewhat greater freedom of hand. In the dome of Verona, he painted several histories in fresco, among which is the a.s.sumption of the Virgin, truly admirable; but the designs are not his, Giulio Romano having prepared the cartoons. His style of execution, however, is clearly enough perceived, which, in respect to colouring and to chiaroscuro, discovers him to be an artist, as Vasari has recorded, "as careful in regard to his use of colours, as any other who flourished at the same period."

The other names that here follow, are included, according to history, in the train of Giorgione, not as his pupils, but his imitators. Yet all exhibit traces of Bellini, because the Venetian manner, up to the time of Tintoretto, did not so much aim at inventing new things, as at perfecting such as had already been discovered; not so desirous of relinquishing the taste of the Bellini, as of modernizing it upon the model of t.i.tian and Giorgione. Hence it arose, that a people of painters were formed in a taste extremely uniform; and the exaggerated observation, "that whoever had cultivated an acquaintance with one Venetian artist of that age, knew them all," seemed to have some ground in truth. But still, as I have said, it is exaggeration, as there is certainly much diversity of style and merit when compared with one another. Among the leading disciples of Giorgione are to be ranked three, who belong to the city or territory of Bergamo, and these are Lotto, as is most generally supposed, Palma, and Cariani. They resemble their master most frequently in fulness, but in the mixture and selection of colours they often appear of the school of Lombardy. More particularly in Cariani there is apparent a certain superficies, like that of wax, equally diffused over the canva.s.s, which shines so as to enliven the eye; and when seen at a distance, with but little light, appears in full relief, a result which others have also noticed in the works of Coreggio.

The name of Lorenzo Lotto is recorded by Vasari and elsewhere, in which accounts his country is considered as consisting of the entire state, as he himself, indeed, affixed to his picture of S. Cristoforo di Loreto, _Laurentius Lottus Pictor Venetus_.[43] The late annotator of Vasari, observing the grace of countenance and the turn of the eyes remarkable in his pictures, supposed him to be a disciple of Vinci, an opinion that might be supported by the authority of Lomazzo, who mentions the names of Cesare da Sesto and Lorenzo Lotto together, both being imitators, in the distribution of their lights, of da Vinci. Lotto most likely profited by his vicinity to Milan, in order to cultivate an acquaintance with, and to imitate Vinci in many points; though I am not, therefore, inclined to discredit the account which gives him for a pupil to Bellini, and a rival to Castelfranco. But the style of the disciples of Lionardo, so uniform in Luini and in the other Milanese, is very slightly perceptible in the productions of Lotto. His manner is, in truth, wholly Venetian, bold in its colours, luxurious in its draperies, and like Giorgione, of a deep red in the fleshy parts. His hand, however, is less bold and free than that of the latter, whose loftier character he is fond of tempering with the play, as it were, of his middle tints; selecting, at the same time, lighter forms, to whose heads he gives a character more placid and a beauty more ideal. In the background of his pictures he often retains a peculiar clear or azure colour, which if it do not harmonize so much with the figures, confers distinctness on each individual, and presents them in a very lively manner to the eye. His pictures of S. Antonino, at the Dominicans in Venice, and of S. Niccolo, at the Carmine, which design he repeated in the S. Vincenzio of the Dominicans at Recanati, are compositions extremely novel and original. In his others he varies little from the usual style; that of a Madonna seated on a throne, surrounded with saints, with cherubs in the air, or upon the steps. Yet these he relieves by the novelty of perspective, or by att.i.tudes, or contrasted views. Thus in his specimen of the S. Bartolommeo, at Bergamo, ent.i.tled by Ridolfi wonderful, he bestows upon the Virgin and the infant Jesus such finely diversified and contrasted motions, that they seem as if conversing with the holy bystanders, the one on the right and the other on the left hand. And in that of S. Spirito, sparkling as it were with graces, we meet with a figure of S. John the Baptist, drawn as a child, standing at the foot of the throne, in the act of embracing a lamb, and expressing so natural and lively a joy, at once so simple and innocent, with a smile so beautiful, that we can hardly believe while we gaze upon it, that Raffaello or Correggio could have gone beyond it.

Such masterpieces as these, with others that are to be seen at Bergamo, in churches and private collections, place him almost on a level with the first luminaries of the art. If Vasari did not fairly appreciate his merits, it arose only from his having viewed several of his less studied and less n.o.ble pieces. And it is true that he has not always exhibited the same degree of excellence, or force of design. The period in which he chiefly flourished may be computed from the year 1513, when he was selected, among many professors of reputation, to adorn the altar for the church of the Dominicans at Bergamo; and, perhaps, the decline of his powers ought to be dated from 1546, an epoch inscribed upon his picture of San Jacopo dell"Orio, in Venice. He was employed also at Ancona, and in particular at the church of S. Dominico, at Recanati, where, interspersed among pieces of superior power, more especially in his smaller pictures, we detect some incorrectness in his extremities, and stiffness of composition, resembling that of Gian Bellini; whether, as it is conjectured by Vasari, they were among the earliest, or more probably among some of his latest efforts. For it is well known, that when far advanced in years, he was accustomed to retire to Loreto, a little way from Recanati, and that engaged in continual supplication to the Virgin, in order that she might guide him into a better method, he there closed the period of his days in tranquillity.

Jacopo Palma, commonly called _Palma Vecchio_, to distinguish him from his great-nephew Jacopo, was invariably considered the companion and rival of Lotto, until such time as Combe first confused the historical dates relating to him. By Ridolfi we are told that Palma employed himself in completing a picture left imperfect by t.i.tian, at the period of his death in 1576. Upon this, and similar authorities, Combe takes occasion to postpone the birth of Palma, until 1540; adding to which the forty-eight years a.s.signed him by Vasari, the time of his decease is placed in 1588. In such arrangement the critic seems neither to have paid attention to the style of Jacopo, still retaining some traces of the antique, nor to the authority of Ridolfi, who makes him the master of Bonifazio, any more than to Vasari"s testimony, in the work published in 1568, declaring him to have died several years before that period in Venice. He does not even consider, what he might more easily have ascertained, that there was another Jacopo Palma, great-nephew of the elder, who, according to the authority of Boschini (p. 110), was a pupil of t.i.tian"s as long as the latter survived; and that Ridolfi, on this occasion, ent.i.tled him _Palma_, without the addition of _younger_, on account of its being so extremely unlikely that any would confound him with the elder Palma. Such, notwithstanding, was the case, and is, in fact, only a slight sample of the inaccuracies of the whole work. The same error has been repeated by too many authors, even among the Italians; and the most amusing of all is, that Palma the elder is said to have been born about the year 1540, while almost, in the same breath, the younger Palma is declared to have been born in 1544. So much must here suffice as to his age, proceeding in the next instance to his style.

Much attached to the method of Giorgione, he aimed at attaining his clearness of expression, and vivacity of colouring. In his celebrated picture of Saint Barbara, at S. Maria Formosa, one of his most powerful and characteristic productions, Jacopo more especially adopted him as his model. In some of his other pieces, he more nearly approaches t.i.tian, a resemblance we are told by Ridolfi, consisting in the peculiar grace which he acquired from studying the earliest productions of that great master. Of this kind is the Supper of Christ, painted for Santa Maria _Mater Domini_, with the Virgin at San Stefano di Vicenza, executed with so much sweetness of expression as to be esteemed one of his happiest productions. There are many examples of both styles to be met with in the grand Carrara collection, as given in the list of Count Ta.s.si, (p. 93). Finally, Zanetti is of opinion that in some others he displays a more original genius, as exemplified in the Epiphany of the island of Saint Helena, where he equally shines in the character of a naturalist who selects well, who carefully disposes his draperies, and who composes according to good rules. The distinguishing character then of his pieces is diligence, refinement, and a harmony of tints, so great as to leave no traces of the pencil; and it has been observed by one of his historians, that he long occupied himself in the production of each piece, and frequently retouched it. In the mixture of his colours, as well as other respects, he often resembles Lotto, and if he be less animated and sublime, he is, perhaps, generally speaking, more beautiful in the form of his heads, especially in those of boys and women. It is the opinion of some, that in several of his countenances he expressed the likeness of his daughter Violante, very nearly related to t.i.tian, and a portrait of whom, by the hand of her father, was to be seen in the gallery of Sera, a Florentine gentleman, who purchased at Venice many rarities for the House of the Medici, as well as for himself, (Boschini, p. 368). A variety of pictures intended for private rooms, met with in different places in Italy, have also been attributed to the hand of Palma; besides portraits, one of which has been commended by Vasari as truly astonishing, from its beauty; and Madonnas, chiefly drawn along with other saints, on oblong canva.s.s; a practice in common use by many artists of that age, some of whom we have already recounted, and others are yet to come. But the least informed among people of taste, being ignorant of their names, the moment they behold a picture between the dryness of Giovanni Bellini and the softness of t.i.tian, p.r.o.nounce it to be a Palma, and this, more particularly, where they find countenances well rounded and coloured, landscape exhibited with care, and roseate hues in the drapery, occurring more frequently than any of a more sanguine dye. In this way Palma is in the mouths of all, while other artists, also very numerous, are mentioned only in proportion as they have attached their own names to their productions. One of these, resembling Palma and Lotto, but slightly known beyond the precincts of Bergamo and some adjacent cities, is Giovanni Cariani, as to whom Vasari is altogether silent. One of his pieces, representing our Saviour, along with several saints, and dated 1514, I have myself seen at Milan, which appears to have been altogether formed upon the model of Giorgione. If I mistake not, it is a juvenile production, and when compared with some others, which I saw at Bergamo, very indifferent in its forms. The most excellent of any from his hand, is a Virgin, preserved at the Servi, with a group of beatified spirits, a choir of angels, and other angels at her feet, engaged in playing upon their harps in concert. It is an exceedingly graceful production, delightfully ornamented with landscape and figures in the distance; very tasteful in its tints, which are blended in a manner equal to the most studied specimens of the two artists of Bergamo, already mentioned; thus forming with them a triumvirate, calculated to reflect honour upon any country. It has been stated by Ta.s.si, that the celebrated Zuccherelli never visited Bergamo, without returning to admire the beauties of this picture, p.r.o.nouncing it one of the finest specimens of the art he had ever beheld, and the best which that city had to boast. Cariani was also no less distinguished as a portrait painter, as we gather from a piece belonging to the Counts Albani, containing various portraits of that n.o.ble family; and which, surrounded with specimens of the best colourists; would almost appear to be the only one deserving of peculiar admiration.

The city of Trevigi may boast of two artists belonging to the same cla.s.s, though widely differing from each other. One of these is Rocco Marconi, distinguished by Zanetti among some of the best disciples of Bellini, and erroneously referred by Ridolfi to the school of Palma. He excelled in accuracy of design, taste of colouring, and diligence of hand, though not always sufficiently easy in his contours, and for the most part exhibiting a severity almost approaching to plebeian coa.r.s.eness in his countenances. Even in the earliest production attributed to him, executed in the year 1505, and preserved in the church of San Niccolo, at Trevigi, Ridolfi detects that peculiar clearness of style, which may be traced also so strongly in his Three Apostles, at SS. Giovanni and Paolo, as well as in his few other pictures dispersed among the public places. Indeed half-length figures of this artist are by no means of rare occurrence in private collections, though he can boast no single specimen so beautiful, or so completely _Giorgionesque_ as his Judgment of the Adulteress, to be seen in the chapter of San Giorgio Maggiore, and of which there is either a duplicate or a copy at San Pantaleo, and in other places. The other of these two artists is Paris Bordone, the elevation of whose mind and genius seemed to correspond with that of his birth. After having been a pupil of t.i.tian for a short period, he became an enthusiastic imitator of Giorgione, finally adopting an originality of manner, whose peculiar grace bears no resemblance to that of any other painter. His forms may truly be said to breathe, to glow, and even to laugh, with a force of colouring, which, incapable of displaying a greater degree of truth than that of t.i.tian, aimed, nevertheless, at more variety and attraction; while, at the same time, they were not wanting in delicacy of design, novelty of drapery, propriety of composition, and a peculiarly lively air of the heads. In the church of S. Giobbe he produced a picture of S.

Andrew embracing his Cross, with an angel seen hovering above, in the act of bestowing upon him the crown of martyrdom; while in one of the two saints, represented at the side, he drew the figure of S. Peter, in the act of gazing upon him with a kind of envy; an idea equally novel and picturesque. A similar method he adopted in other of his works, produced in great part for the ornament of his native place and its vicinity. Not a subject but is taken from the antique; yet each of them is treated with originality. Of such kind, is that picture of a true Paradise, seen in the Ognissanti at Trevigi, and those evangelical mysteries in the cathedral of the same city, represented in an altarpiece, divided into six different groups, at the request, it is presumed, of the person who engaged him to execute it. Here we behold, a.s.sembled in a small s.p.a.ce, every thing of the most pleasing and beautiful kind, which he has elsewhere scattered throughout the whole of his works. In Venice, his representation of the restoration of the ring to the Doge by a fisherman, possesses a high reputation; and this, accompanied with that of the Tempest, shortly before described, by Giorgione, forms an admirable contrast in its beauty to the terrors abounding in the latter. Decorated with the finest specimens of architecture, and a profusion of animated and well adapted figures, as varied in their actions as in their draperies, it has been commended by Vasari as the masterpiece of his labours. The same artist is, likewise, highly prized in collections. Madonnas of his are to be met with, characterized by the uniformity of their countenance, as well as some of his portraits, often attired in the manner of Giorgione, and composed with fine and novel embellishments. Being invited to the court of Francis II., he acquired the favour of that monarch and of his successor, thus enriching himself by the exercise of his talents. He had a son who pursued the same branches of the art; but from his picture of Daniel, remaining at Santa Maria Formosa in Venice, it is evident how very inferior he must have been.

At the same time flourished one Girolamo da Trevigi, a different artist to his namesake already mentioned by us, who, induced probably by the example of his n.o.ble fellow citizen, and turning his attention to a more select style than the generality of the Venetian School, applied himself to the models of Raffaello, and the Romans. He is ent.i.tled by Padre Federici, upon the authority of Mauro, Pennacchi, and is considered by him the son of that Piermaria, of whom we made brief mention before, (page 62). There is little from his hand remaining at Venice, but more in Bologna, particularly at San Petronio, where he painted in oil the histories of S. Antony of Padua, with judgment and grace, combined with an exquisite degree of polish, which obtained for him the commendation of Vasari. It was here he happily succeeded in uniting the excellences of the two schools, though he did not flourish long enough to mature them, having devoted himself to the military occupation of an engineer, to which service he fell a victim in 1544, while in England; he was killed, according to Vasari, in his thirty-sixth year. On this last point we can scarcely admit the emendation offered us by the author of the Description of Vicenza, who would subst.i.tute for this earlier date the age of seventy-six years, a period of life when men seldom encounter their final doom in the field. In this instance, perhaps, the emendator was not aware that there exist signatures of a Girolamo da Treviso, met with upon pictures from the year 1472 to that of 1487, uniformly of ancient design; an artist, who could not, in the common course of life, have survived to become an excellent disciple of Raffaello, and the a.s.sistant of Pupini at Bologna, about the year 1530. He failed, therefore, to make a distinction between two painters of the same name, as it will be perceived we have done, followed by the authority of Padre Federici.

Finally, in this list must be enumerated Gio. Antonio Licinio, either Sacchiense, or Cuticello,[44] until such period, as happening to be wounded in the hand by his brother, he renounced all t.i.tle to his family name, a.s.suming the appellation of Regillo. He is commonly, however, called Pordenone, from his native place, formerly a province, and now a city of the Friuli. "In this province," it is observed by Vasari, "there flourished, during his time, a great number of excellent artists, who had never visited either Florence or Rome; but he stood pre-eminent above all, surpa.s.sing his predecessors in the conception of his pieces, in design, in boldness, in the use of his colours, in his frescos, in rapidity, in grandeur of relief; and, indeed, in every other attribute of the arts." It is uncertain whether he attended the School of Castelfranco, as it has been supposed by some, and much more so, whether he was a fellow student along with him and t.i.tian, under Giovanni Bellini, a supposition started by Rinaldis, (p. 62). To me, the opinion reported by Ridolfi appears nearer the truth, that having first studied, in his youth, the productions of Pelligrino, at Udine, he subsequently adopted the manner of Giorgione, following the bias of his own genius, invariably the artist"s safest guide in the formation of a style. Other disciples of Giorgione, more or less resembled him in manner, but Pordenone seemed to vie with him in spirit, a spirit equally daring, resolute, and great; surpa.s.sed by no other, perhaps, in the Venetian School. Yet in lower Italy he is little known beyond his name. The picture with the portraits of his family, preserved in the Palazzo Borghese, is the best production of his that I have met with in these parts. And elsewhere, indeed, we rarely behold such histories as his exquisite picture of the Raising of Lazarus, in possession of the Conti Lecchi, at Brescia. Nor does he abound in altarpieces, beyond the province of Friuli, which boasts of several in different places, though not all equally genuine. The few executed in Pordenone, are unquestionably his, inasmuch as he has himself described them in a memorial still extant.[45] The collegiate church possesses two of these; one consisting of a Holy Family, with S. Christopher, executed in 1515, very finely coloured, but not exempt from some inaccuracies. The other bears the date of 1535, representing S. Mark in the act of consecrating a bishop, along with other saints, and with perspective; a piece, says its author, _posta in opera, non finita_, begun, indeed, but not finished. A more complete specimen was to be seen at San Pier Martire di Udine, in his Annunciation, since re-touched and destroyed. Some there are who have preferred, before every other, that preserved in S. Maria dell"Orto, at Venice. It consists of San Lorenzo Giustiniani, surrounded by various saints; among whom S. John the Baptist appears naked according to the rules of the most learned schools; while the arm of S.

Augustine is seen, as it were, stretched forth out of the picture, an effect of perspective this artist has repeated in various other places.

The most beautiful of his pieces in Piacenza, where he had established himself, is his picture of the Marriage of S. Catherine, upon a dark ground, which gives a roundness to the whole of the figures; it is full of grace in those of a more tender character, and displays grandeur in the forms of S. Peter and S. Paul, represented on the two sides; in the last of whom, as well as in the S. Rocco of Pordenone, he gave a portrait of himself.

But his works in fresco display the highest degree of merit; great part of which he produced in the Friuli, besides numerous others scattered throughout castles and villas, no longer distinguished by strangers, except from the circ.u.mstance of possessing some painting of Pordenone.

Such places are Castions, Valeriano, Villanova, Varmo, Pallazuolo, where he is with certainty known to have employed his talents. A few remnants are likewise preserved in Mantua, in the Casa de" Cesarei, and in the palazzo Doria, at Genoa; some at S. Rocco, and the cloisters of S.

Stefano, in Venice, and many specimens in high preservation in the dome of Cremona, and at Santa Maria di Campagna, in Piacenza, where, in collections, and in the facades of houses, other pieces of his are pointed out. His labours in fresco, however, are not all equally studied and correct; more particularly those in his native Friuli, which he produced at an early age in great abundance, and for a small price. He is more select in his male forms than in those of his women, whose model he appears to have frequently taken from very robust rather than very beautiful subjects, most probably met with in the adjacent province of Carnia, where he is said to have indulged his early pa.s.sions. But in every thing he undertook we may invariably trace the workings of a vigorous fancy, rich in conceiving, in varying, and developing his ideas; powerful in his exhibition of the pa.s.sions, displaying the master-hand that encounters the difficulties of the art with the most novel combinations in the science of foreshortening, with the most laboured perspective, and with a power of relief which appears perfectly starting from the canva.s.s.

In Venice, he seemed to surpa.s.s all he had before done. The compet.i.tion, or rather enmity subsisting between him and t.i.tian, served as a spur both by day and night, to actuate him to fresh exertions. He was at times even accustomed to paint with arms at his side; and it is the opinion of many, that such emulation was of no less advantage to t.i.tian, than was the rivalship of Michelangiolo to Raffaello. In this instance, also, the one excelled in strength, the other in grace of hand; or, as it has been observed by Zanetti, nature prevailed in t.i.tian in a superior degree to manner, while in Pordenone both shone with an equal degree of excellence. To have competed with t.i.tian is a circ.u.mstance not a little honourable to his name, and has acquired for him in the Venetian School the second rank at least, in a period so prolific in excellent artists. A portion of the people, indeed, then preferred him to t.i.tian; for, as I have elsewhere observed, there is nothing so well calculated to surprise the mult.i.tude as the production of fine effect and of the chiaroscuro, in which art he is known to have first preceded Guercino. Pordenone was highly favoured, and presented with the t.i.tle of cavalier by Charles V.; and being subsequently invited to the court of Ercole II. duke of Ferrara, he died there shortly after, not without suspicion of having been poisoned. We have in the next place to give an account of his school.

Bernardino Licinio, from his surname probably a relation of the foregoing, was an artist who is here deserving of mention. We gather from history, as well as from his manner, that he was also a pupil of Pordenone; and there remains at the Conventuali, in Venice, an altarpiece of the usual antique composition, quite in the style of the other Licinio, from his hand. It is reported, likewise, that some of his portraits are preserved in different collections which have been erroneously ascribed to the elder Pordenone. Sandrart makes mention of Giulio Licinio da Pordenone, a nephew and scholar to Gio. Antonio, adding that he employed himself in Venice; thence transferred his residence to Augusta, where he left behind him some truly surprising specimens in fresco, which obtained for him with some a higher reputation than his uncle. He would appear to be the same Giulio Lizino, who, in compet.i.tion with Schiavone, Paul Veronese, and other artists, produced the three tondi, in the library of St. Mark, in the year 1556.

By Zanetti he is considered of Roman origin,[46] but this is a mistake, arising from Giulio"s having a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Romano during his residence in the capital; while he retained it in Venice, the better to distinguish him from the other _Licinj_, in the same manner as we have already observed of one of the Trevisani, about the same period.

Giannantonio Licinio the younger, was a brother to Giulio, and more commonly named Sacchiense, an artist who has been highly commended, but whose works are no longer to be seen, not even in Como, as far as we can learn, where he died.

After the Licinj we ought next to record the name of Calderari, a distinguished pupil of Gio. Antonio, who has succeeded in sometimes imposing upon the most acute judges. Thus it has occurred in the parish church of Montereale, where he produced many scripture histories in fresco, which had been uniformly ascribed to the hand of Pordenone, until the discovery of a doc.u.ment establishing the contrary. He is even little known in his native place of Pordenone, and his frescos in the cathedral were attributed to the pencil of Amalteo. Pordenone may also boast of another disciple in Frances...o...b..ccaruzzi da Conigliano. For this we have the authority of Ridolfi, confirmed by the artist"s own work, ornamenting his native place, of St. Francis in the act of receiving the _stigmata_, or marks of Christ, a figure more striking in point of relief than of colouring. To the same school has been added by Orlandi, the name of Gio. Batista Gra.s.si, a good painter, but more excellent as an architect, and the same from whom Vasari drew his notices of the painters of Friuli. I should be inclined, however, to refer him to some other school, both on account of Vasari"s silence on a point so creditable to him, and his resemblance to the manner of t.i.tian in such of the few pieces as have been well preserved, and are exempt from modern retouches of art. Of this kind are his pictures of the Annunciation; the Translation of Elias; and the Vision of Ezekiel, in the cathedral of Gemona, on the doors of the organ there.

The last name to be enumerated in this cla.s.s, is that of Pomponio Amalteo, a native of San Vito, and of a n.o.ble family which yet boasts its descendants at Uderzo. He was one of the most excellent of Giannantonio"s pupils, and introduced his master"s style into the Friuli, for which reason we shall here give him a place, together with the whole of his followers. He was son-in-law to Pordenone, and the artist who succeeded him in his school at Friuli. Both there and in other places he employed himself in works of distinguished merit. He preserved the manner of his father-in-law, as has been observed by Ridolfi, who erroneously ascribes to Licinio the Three Judgments, indisputably the production of Amalteo, which he represented in a gallery at Ceneda, in which causes are decided. They consist of the Judgment of Solomon, of that of Daniel, and a third of Trajan; the whole completed in the year 1536. It is everywhere evident that he aspired to originality of manner; his shading is less strong, his colours are brighter, and the proportions of his figures, and all his ideas are upon a less elevated scale than those of his father-in-law. Some faint idea of his works may be gathered from Vasari and Ridolfi, who omitted, however, many of them, among others the five pictures of Roman histories adorning the Hall of the Notaries at Belluno: but it is only some faint idea, inasmuch as neither these two writers, nor Altan, who collected memorials of him in a little work, were at all enabled to do full justice to the labours of an artist who continued to occupy himself, a.s.sisted by various other hands, until the latest period of his life.

Hence it is that the bulk of his works can by no means boast the same degree of excellence as the Three Judgments we have mentioned, or the picture of S. Francis, at the church of that name, in Udine, esteemed one among the valuable pieces belonging to the city. Still, wherever or upon whatever subject he employed himself, he displayed the powers of a great master, educated by Pordenone; and one who not only shewed himself, with the generality of Venetians, a splendid colourist, but designed far more accurately. The same merit continued, for some period, to characterize his successors, who, however, if I mistake not, were greatly inferior to him in genius; excepting only his brother, with whom we shall commence the history of Pomponio"s School.

His name was Girolamo, and, receiving the instructions of his brother, he is supposed to have a.s.sisted him in his labours, giving proofs of a n.o.ble genius, which he more peculiarly manifested in works of design; in small pictures, which appeared like miniature, in several fables executed in fresco, and in an altarpiece which he painted in the church of San Vito. Ridolfi commends him highly for his spirited manner, and another of the old writers, as we learn from Rinaldis, gives his opinion, that if he had flourished for a longer period, he would, perhaps, have proved no way inferior to the great Pordenone. Hence I find reason to conclude that Girolamo continued, during life, the exercise of his art; and that the report transmitted to us through Ridolfi, about a century after his death, of his brother Pomponio having devoted him out of jealousy of his genius to mercantile pursuits, as was certainly the case with a brother of t.i.tian"s, must have been wholly without foundation.

Pomponio likewise availed himself of the aid of Antonio Bosello in the paintings he produced at Ceneda, as well as for the Patriarch within the gallery just before recorded, and for the canons in the Organ of the cathedral. This artist must a.s.suredly have arrived at some degree of perfection, inasmuch as we are in possession of the particulars of various salaries paid to him, distinct from such as were paid to the princ.i.p.al. As I find mention in Bergamo of an Antonio Boselli, memorials of whom subsist there between the period of 1509 and that of 1527, it is extremely probable that he was the same painter, who, being unable to contend with the fame of Lotto, and so many other of his contemporaries in that celebrated school, sought for better fortune beyond his native place. It is certain he exercised his talents in Padua, and thence he might easily penetrate into Friuli, and give his a.s.sistance to Pomponio, whilst employed at Ceneda during the years 1534, 1535, and 1536.